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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Ej^po^e of Vice an(l drinjE.

e/^TVi XHKJs^Ss

CAY FRENCH CAPITOL

Translated Expressly for Richard K. Fox^

PUBLISHED BY

RICHiRD K. FOX, PROPRIETOR OF THE POLICE GAZETTE

FRANKLIN SQUARE, NEW YORK

"LIFE OF JAKE KILEAIN," WILL BE FUBLISHED SHORTLY.

o o o o o ooocoobooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Literature that EYerybody SbouU Read,

Glimpses of Gotham; or, New York by Daylight and After Dark.

Man Traps of New York. A Full Expose of the Metropolitan Swindler.

New York by Day and Night. A Continuation of Glimpses of Gotham.

New York Tombs ; its Secrets, Romances, Crimes and Mysteries.

Mysteries of New York Unveiled. One of the most exciting books ever pub-
lished.

Paris by Gaslight. The Gay Life of the Gayest City in the World.

Paris Inside Out ; or, Joe Potts on the Loose. A vivid story of Parisian life.

Secrets of the Stage; or, The Mysteries of the Play-House Unveiled.

Great Artists of the American Stage. Portraits of the Actors and Actresses of
America.

Tam-s Brothers, the Celebrated Outlaw Brothers. Their Lives and Adventures.

Billy Leroy, the Colorado Bandit. The King of American Highwaymen.

Mysteries of Mormonism. A Full Expose ot its Hidden Crimes.

Lives of the Poisoners. The Most Fascinating Book of the Year.

Mabille Unmasked; or, The Wickedest Place in the World.

Folly's Queens. Women whose Loves Ruled the World.

Footlight Favorites. Portraits of the Leading American and European Actresses.

Suicide's Cranks; or. The Curiosities of Self-Murder. Showing the origin of
suicide.

Coney Island Frolics. How New York's Gay Girls and Jolly Boys Enjoy Them-
selves by the Sea.

Paris Unveiled. A complete expose of the gay French capital.

Historic Crimes, bting a complete narrative of Stgrtling Crimes.

The American Athlete. A Treatise on the Principles and Rules of Training.
Champions of the American Prize Ring. Complete History and Portraits of all the

American Heavy Weights.
Life of Tug Wilson, champion pugilist of England.
Life of Ed. Hanlan, America s Champion Oarsman.
Bettino- Man's Guide; or, How to. Invest in Auction and Mutual Pools and Com

binations.
Life of John L. Sullivan. Ex-champion of America.

Any of the above superbly illustrated books mailed to your address on
receipt of 25 CENTS. Address

RICHARD K. FOX, Publisher,

Franklin Square, New York.

IN LOVE WITH THE PKETTT WAITEESS.

PARIS UNVEILED

OR AN

EXPOSE OF VICE M CRIME

IN THE

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BY A

X^^ CELEBRATED FRENCH DETpQ[E.

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Traislated Expressly for Richard K. Fox.

PUBLISHED BY

RICHARD K. FOX, PROPRIETOR OF THE POLICE GAZETTE,

[FRANKLIN SQUARE, NEW YORK.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1888, by
EICHAED K. FOX,

Publisher of the Police Gazette,

NEW YORK,

In the Ofl&ce of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

PARIS UNVEILED.

A STARTLING EXPOSE BY M. G.'' MACE. EX-CHIEF OF DETECTIVES OF THE FRENCH
CAPITAL, OF THE VICES OF THE MODERN SODOM.

(EXPRESSLY TRANSLATED FOR RICHARD K. FOX.)

CHAPTER THE FIEST.

A MORNING WITH THE PREFECT OF POLICE.

At No. 7 Boulevard du Palais is one of the entrances
of the City Hall.

Bo far as outward appearances go, this is by no
means one of the principal doors of the building. It is,
none the less, considerably the most important.

As everybody knows the Prefect of Police, wandering
oflicial who has no permanent headquarters, tempo-
raril.v (that is to say, continuously) resides at that
address. For the entrance on the Boulevard du Palais,
whith is scarcely to be distinguished from those of his
neighbors, gives access to the private domicile as well
as to the public offices of the Prefect.

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CHIEFS IN COtTNCrL.

These latter, which ought to be within easy reach of
persons having business vnVa. them, are perched up
aloft at an altitude which very few of the Mansards of
old Paris have so far attained. No less than seventy-
nine steps of staircase separate them from the ground
floor.

The vestibule is ornamented with a large pier glass,
which permits visitors to scrutinize themselves from
head to foot, and thus be more at ease about their ap-
pearance than their consciences.

The day we introduce the reader to this interesting
institution is remarkable for the bustle and animation
which prevail there.

A Prefect who has lost his "pull" with the powers
that be is surrendering his office and a luckier suc-
cessor is taking it off his hands. The moving out of
the one and the moving in of the other are taking place
simultaneously.

The incoming Prefect finds it difficult to conceal hla
satisfaction, and overflows with the very laudable am-
bition to excel his predecessor.

The outgoing Prefect takes away with him, a lot of
unpleasant memories, some concern for his future, and
a genuine regret to be divorced from his authority.

Everybody knows that Prefects of Police are supplied
gratis with houseroom, furniture, heat, light, house
linen, crockery and everything necessary for a private
establishment. In the headquarters, the private apart-
ments are situated on the second floor. On the day we
introduce our reader to them, they were cluttered up
by a lot of zealous subordinates overseen and directed
by an officer with the rank of "brigadier."

Some were sweeping carpets, others washing win-
dows, others shaking curtains. Brooms, cloths and
feather dusters were all hard at work.

"Had I better send the kitchen things to be re-
tinned ?" inquired the brigadier of the official in charge.

"Not at all. All they need is a good rubbing up.
The tins have oiitlasted the Prefect. Perhaps they'll
do the same by his successor."

' 'How about the bedding V

"!' 11 take charge of it." >

■V\Tiile this sort of thing was going on in the main sa-
loon, just behind the prefectoral sanctum, two men were

PARIS UNVEILED.

hard at work therein. They were the new Prefect and
his nephew who served him in the capacity of private
secretary. With praiseworthy industry they were both
carefully taking note of the vast operations of the
police department, daily threatened, as it is, constantly
attacked in the rear, and still none the less always act-
ing for the intelligent and laborious population of
Paris, of which it is the protection in good as well as in
evil times.

It was 10 o'clock A. M. Opening the door of the pre-
fectoral sanctum an usher announced:

"The General Secretary."

After a cordial handshaking (for he was an old per-
sonal friend of the new Prefect) the two great function-
aries began to converse.

"I quite agree with you, and I will even go so far as
to admit that 1 am not at all easy about some of oiir
new men. To be frank, some of the memoranda in my
possession are anything but encouraging. There are
any nunaber of candidates, who are shoved forward by
'influence,' who are by no means equal to the exigen-
cies of active service."

"Very well. We must depend on our own judgment
instead of yielding to the pressure of interested par-
ties. I decline to go in for a general beheading."

"My view exactly."

Here the door opened and the usher announced the
arrival of the two Chiefs of the Division of General
Control and of the Chief of the Municipal Police.

"It is the hour for official reports," said the Prefect,

THE FIGHT AT "MANILLA'S."

"How do you get on with your overhauling of the
personelle of the department ?" asked the Prefect.

"Well, I've put in a good deal of hard work, and I must
admit that the sterling qualities of the old staff have
made a very strong impression on me. I really have
been able to mark only ten names for dismissal."

"Ten names? That is quite a number, isn't it? Our
desire to introduce reform ought not to lead us to
wholesale dismissals of men who do their duty. There
are special agents who have come up from the bottom
grades— men who, by dint of courage, prudence and
professional skill, har© managed to rise to high rank—
men who are of great value to the force. They have a
right to feel themselves established in their positions.
It is the best thing to help an employee carry out his
work faithfully. That is why I say do your overhaul-
ing with moderation and judgment."

"and we will resume our conversation this evenins."

The General Secretary made his exit and the different
chiefs of the service were introduced.

The Chief of the Second Division submitted to the Pre-
fect for his signature a general order relating to haf'ks
and cabs, and communicated sundry reports of dan-
geroiis, objectionable ornnwholesomo establishments.
He retired with instructions to exercise renewed dili-
gence in dealing with all persons adulterating the
necessities of life.

The Controller-G«neral reported an inquest which had
taken place on the body of a man arrested for an
offense against public morals, who had committed
suicide by hanging himself, with his siTspenders, in his
cell at a police station. The responsibility for the a"t
rested with a young police officer, who had failed to obey
the rule requiring a constant inspection of prisoners.

FAEIS UNVEILED.

When the Controller-General retired, it was the turn
of the Chief of the First Division. After submitting
several reports to the Prefect, he requested permission
to grant the attendance of an officer in plain clothes at
a wedding which, so there was reason to believe, was to
be the scene of an outbreak on the part of a cast-off
mistress of the bridegroom.

"Who asks for this concession ?"

"Monsieur L , Counsellor of State. He marries

Mile. T .'•

"And who is the person whom they expect to be an-
noyed by ?"

"A married woman, separated from her husband.
Monsieur L. has broken off with her a long time."

"Well, we must prevent such a scandal. Is this sort
of thing common ?"

"Altogether too common."

' 'Do you think the people who ask for such protection
deserve it ?"

raid on seventeen tramps in the Church of St. Germain
TAuxerrois.

Second Precinct.— Atrocious assault with a knife,
made by a "lover" on one of the inmates of the house
of ill-repute of the woman Greff in the Eue St. Foy.

Third Precinct.— A child of five killed by being run
over at six o'clock by a milkman's wagon in the Rue4u
Temple.

"Why is it," inquired the Prefect, "that milkmen
and butchers are so addicted to reckless driving ? We
must put an end to the practice."

"All right," replied the Chief. Then he went on:

Fourth Precinct.— Nothing.

Fifth Precinct. -Nothing.

"Two model pi'ecincts."

Sixth Precinct.— A howl and riot among students over
a lot of prostitutes, in the Rue Monsietir le Prince."

"The usual student 'lark,' I suppose."

Seventh Precinct.— A serious disturbance and fight in

AN IlSrrEREUPTED WEDDING.

"Not always. On the contrary, it has been applied for
by men who have seduced and abandoned innocent
young girls."

"What— do you mean to say the department inter-
feres to protect the marriages of men of that sort ?"

"We have got to do so, in order to prevent, in some
Instances, a serious breach of the peace. In this par-
ticular case Monsieur L. is deserving of great sympa-
thy, and nobody at all familiar with the facts of the
case holds him in any way blameworthy."

It was now the turn of the Chief of the Municipal
Police, of whom the Prefect inquired:

"How did Paris behave last night?"

■'You shall judge for yourself, sir."

Saying which he read the following report:

First Precinct.— Attempted assassination of a chief
cook in the Kue Valois by one of his dishwashers. A

the Avenue Lowendall. Two soldiers and a civilian
badly injured. The military authoi'ities notified.

Eighth Precinct.— Two arrests for crimes against pub-
lic decency, in the Cours La Reine.

Ninth Precinct.— Three arrests of children on the
Boulevard des Italiens for begging.

Tenth Precinct.- Attempted suicide by a young wo-
man from the Qn&y Lemappes. She threw herself in
the canal and was rescued by two ofiBicers and taken to
the St. Louis Hospital.

"What was her motive ?"

"Destitution."

"Well, we must do something for her relief."

"I have ordered a full inquiry to be made into her
case, and to-morrow I shall allow her 100 francs."

"I wouldn't wait till to-morrow. To poor wretches
like her every day seems like a century."

PARIS UNVEILED.

"JiiBt as you say."

Eleventh Precinct.— An unknown person broke the
arm of Madame Capiton, wine merchant on the Eue
du Faubourg du Temple. Dangerous wound. Motive
supposed to be revenge.

Twelfth Precinct.— A fish-woman in the Rue Dumesnil
struck her janitress several serious blows on the head
with a heavy candlestick because the latter prevented
her from leaving without paying her rent. The culprit
has been arrested.

Thirteenth Precinct.— On the Boulevard de I'Hopital
a wagoner arrested on the complaints of bystanders
for cruelly beating his horses. On the Rue Jeanne
d'Arc, two "lovers" arrested for fighting over a rag-
picker fifteen years of age. One of them bit off the
other's nose.

Fourteenth Precinct.— A young woman dead on the
Rue Daguerre of uterine hemorrhage— supposed to be
a case of abortion.

(^L

"MANILLA."

Fifteenth Precinct.— A corpse f oiind at the Bridge of
Penelle — in the water over a month.

Sixteenth Precinct.— Two safes broken open In the
store of C. D. & Co., on the Rue de la Pompe, contain-
ing a large amount in stock certificates and bank notes.

Seventeenth Precinct.— Three midnight affrays on the
Boulevard Pereire. Revolver shots exchanged. No
arrests.

Eighteenth Precinct.— Insigiiificant fire in a feed store
on the Rue Marcadet.

Nineteenth Precinct.— Desperate fight with knives be-
tween Italian, German and French laborers on the Rue
de Puebla. Two wounded at the hospital. Full report
will be made later.

"I suppose the Foreign Office will have to take notice
of this as an international affair."

Twentieth Pi-ecinct.— Burglary in a liquor saloon on
the Rue Meuilmontant. The burglars, who have so far
escaped arrest, carried off twenty-five boxes of cigars
and several bottles of liquor.

"You see," observed the Chief of MuniciiJal Police,
"it has been quite a light night for us."

"I don't agree with you," replied the Prefect. "In
my judgment there were more than enough crimes of
every nature— burglaries, affrays, riots, attempted
murders, suicides and other offences. This sort of
thing must be stopped, and we must prove that the
Municipal Police is equal to its responsibiUties."

"We do the best we can."

"Again I don't agi-ee with you. Take the case of the
two burglaries. What were the police of the Nine-
teenth Precinct doing that they let them occur?"

"The officers of the Nineteenth were engaged in
another serious business, which is not mentioned in
the general reports. I will explain to you shortly "

"In any event I want to be kept informed of every
detail of those two burglaries."

"I will keep you posted, sir."

"How many arrests have been made since this time
yesterday ?"

"During the last twenty-four hours one hundred and
thirty-six persons have been locked up at headquarters
—a little more than the daily average, which is one
hundred and twenty. Of these one hundred and
thirty-six arrests, fourteen were of prostitutes— regis-
tered and otherwise. Two persons were taken into
custody for insanity, and three lost children were
taken charge of."

"Have you any special reports ?"

"Yes; I have two which merit your special attention.
The first is the case of a young woman who was
brought to the police station of the Place Saint-Sulpice
by a former nurse, charged with being dressed in male
attire."

"This isn't Carnival week— so the act ranks as a mis-
demeanor."

"Not in this particular instance. Mile. Ida V , the

young person in question, obtained a permit from
your predecessor to wear male apparel."

"A permit! On what grounds ?"

"She has a decided blonde beard which makes her
look like a young man. Moreover, she has the air and
walk of a youth. Apart from these peculiarities, she is
quite respectable and lives with her parents, who are
house owners on the Rue Saint Dominique. She made
application for the permit on the ground that she was
exposed to indecent remarks and even ill-treatment
when she went abroad in the garb of her own sex."

"Was she held at the police station ?"

"No. She was released on showing her permit."

"Why did the former nurse prefer the complaint
against her ?"

"MaUce seems to have been the motive."

"The ordinance of Prefect Dubois, dated November
7, 1800, which permits, in certain cases, the wearing of
the attire of one sex by a member of the other, pre-
scribes that the person who carries such a permit shall
not present himself or herself in such attire at any
ball, theatre or other place of public resort. Do you
know if Mile. V. complies with the prescription ?"

"She onl.v goes to church. But it seems to me that a
church is a place of public resort. If it be so decided,
she must, of course, surrender her permit."

The Prefect put his head on one side.

"In matters of conscience I approve of the utmost
liberality, and going to church is a religious act which
ought to be fully honored and protected. On that
ground I decide that Mile. V.'s permit shall not be with-
drawn. What is the other special case ?"

"It is that of a kept woman, who calls hei-self Man-
illa, and who resides in a sumptuous apartment on the
Avenue d'Eylan. At 2 o'clock A. M.— the precise hour
of the burglaries which you commented on— officers,
while passing the resiflence of this woman, heard loud

PARTS UNVEILED.

outcries, made in a female YOice, and two i)ietol shots,
followed by the crash of broken glass. They tried,
•without success, to enter the apartment, and one of
them ran to notify his superior and the Commissary of
Police, while the other remained at the door of the
house, at which was a carriage and pair of horses. The
officer could make nothing out of the driver, who was
a German. In a few minutes the door opened wide
enough to permit the exit of two young men, one of
whom was verj' pale and leaned upon the other. Both
of them got into the carriage, which dashed off in the
direction of the Arc de Triomphe. escaping in spite of
the officer. The next moment a body of police and a
Commissary arrived on the scene, and succeeded in
getting admission to the apartment. In repl.v to ques-
tions, the woman Manilla and her servants told the
following story:

"A Brazilian and a Mexican had met in the apartment,
and were playing red-and-black. In the course of the
game a dispute arose between them, which ended in
each throwing his cards in the other's face. Both of
them were lovers of the woman Manilla, and the quar-
rel over cards was, of coiirse, a mere pretext. The
Brazilian made a dash at the Mexican with a dagger,
which the latter barely escaped by ducking his head.
Then the Mexican drew a revolver and fired twice.
The first bullet went through a Venetian mix-ror, and
the second lodged in the left shoulder of the Bra-
zilian."

"Was it a serious wound ?"

"The Commissary of Police could. not ascertain, for
the two men are reconciled and refuse to talii about the
affair. The Brazilian is under twenty-one shears of age,
and I have had him under observation for some time;
at the urgent request of his mother, who is an im
mensely wealthy woman and has made every effort to
get him to cut loose from the influence of the woman
Manilla. He threatens either to marry her or to blow
his brains out."

"Do you know much about the woman ?"

"I have been informed that she keeps an album full
of the portraits of her admirers, in which she keeps a
record of all the money and jewelr.v she gets out of
them. Most of them are foreigners— bvit I am further
informed that she has an occasional visitor in the per-
son of a very distinguished French public official."

"You have been correctly informed, then," said the
Prefect; "and, moreover, his portrait is to be found in
her album with the others."

The Chief of Municipal Police bit his lip.

"You are evidently better posted than I am."

"More than that," continued the Prefect, "at the last
reception of the Minister of Foreign Afl"airs you shook
the hand of this statesman in my presence."

The Chief of Municipal Police could scarcely refrain
from an exclamation. The statesman referred to was
the last person in the world he suspected.

"Have you anything else for me ?"

"Yes— these four anonymous circulars— which are of
a very revolutionary character."

The Prefect unfolded one of the circulars. It was an
ordinary sheet of paper, black, Avith the printed matter
in red ink. At the foot, instead of a signature, was a
design representing a human skull surmounted by a
dagger.

"It is an appeal to unemployed workingmen," said
the chief, "and declares war to the knife against the
middle classes. They were found posted last night in
the Eleventh Precinct. On several occasions similar
circulars, only executed by hand, have been found in
the same precinct. It looks like an attempt to inflame
workingmen against their employers. I have assigned

special men to the work of detecting the persons who
post these circulars."

The Prefect smiled sardonically.

"Take care the special men don't ti-ace these circulars
too closely."

""Why ?" queried the chief sharply.

"Well, you know, when a theatrical manager finds
business growing bad, he is apt to revive an old piece
which is pretty sure to draw well for a week or two."

"Then you evidently don't believe in any such con-
spiracy."

"I'll believe in it— the moment you arrest anybody
caught in the act of posting these circulars. And even
then I might be inclined to suspect the culprit was
some poor devil into whose hands somebody had slip-
ped twenty cents and a paste brush, with a batch of
these bills."

"Don't you think you're pushing your incredulity a
little too far ?"

"That's my conviction," replied the Prefect firmly.
"In examining the pigeon-holes in which these so-
called seditious circulars are filed away, and comparing
them with the reports of the police agents on the sub-
j ect, I couldn't help being struck by their strong family
resemblance."

Before the disgusted chief could reply to his super-
ior's sarcasm, the doorkeepers announced a second
visit from the Chief of the Second Division.

"Tell him to come in."

"The warden at headquarters," said the chief, "has
informed me that he has in his custody a party ar-
rested on suspicion of robbery from the person, who
says he knows 5'ou and desires to see you at once. Ha
refuses, however, to give his name and address."

"I think," said the Chief of Municipal Police, "that
he is one of a gang of pickpockets, three of whom we
already collared. None of them would give his name
or address. When they are arrested they always pre-
tend that they have just arrived in Paris and have no
baggage. Their 'pals' take the hint when they don't
show up at night and make an immediate bolt of it.
The three were arrested separately— one at the stores
of the Bon Marche, another at the Louvre and the
third at the Printemps."

"The man I speak of was arrested at the Printemps.'"

"Then you may be sure he was one of that gang."

The doorkeeper, at this point, made a reappearance
and handed the Prefect a letter.

"The female who brought this saj'S it is most
urgent."

"Tell her to come in."

As the other officers were about to retire the Prefect,
who had hastily run through the letter, exclaimed :

"Wait a moment, gentlemen. I shall, in all proba-
bilitj', need to profit by your advice and experience.

The lady who has brought this letter is Madame X ,

whose husband is an officer of the Legion of Honor
and a prominent government official. He has been
missing since yesterday."

Madame X entered, weeping bitterly, and dropped

into an easy chair.

"Calm yourself, ms^ good lady," said the Prefect,
courteously. "We shall soon find your husband for
ji'ou. Don't imagine for a moment that anything seri-
ous has happened to him."

The poor woman sobbed as if her heart would break.

"He was always so precise— so exact in everything he
ever did. And he did not have a single bad habit. No!
He had enemies who were jealous of him, and he has
been murdered! "

"What makes you think so ? "

"He has received two or three letters sneering at his

10

PAEIS UNVEILED.

republicaniem. My good husband! He is deadi I've
had a presentiment of it—"

"Did he go yesterday to his office ?"

' 'Yes. I ascertained that this morning without letting
them know that he had not been home all night."

"Was he iu good health ?"

"Diiring the last three months he has complained a
good deal of vertigo."

"Kindly let us have a full description of him, if yoii
please."

"He is about 50 years of age, middling stout. His hair
is cut short, and is brown, sprinkled with gray. So is
his beard, which he wears full. He wore a blacli suit
and a high hat. His linen is marked with his initials.
Here, too, is the best photograph taken of him. It's an
excellent likeness."

"My secretary will conduct you to a waiting-room,
in which I hope news of your husband will find you in
lees than an hour."

After assuring himself that his fair visitor was out of
earshot, the Prefect signed an order which was imme-
diately served on the Chief of Detectives, demanding
the presence of the unknown man suspected of being a
pickpocket.

In a very few minutes the Chief of Detectives was
ushered in, with his prisoner.

The Prefect was stupefied— and very naturally. In the
downcast culprit he immediately recognized the miss-
ing Monsieur X.

An embarrassing silence prevailed for a few minutes.

The Prefect broke it.

"So this is you, is it ?"

The prisoner put his handkerchief to his eyes. "I
am sorrj' to say it is. I must protest against the way I
have been treated."

"How?"

"Your men have handled me as roughly as if I were a
professional thief."

"I don't wonder— considering that, according to your
own statement, the pocketbook found u])on 3'0ii was
not your property. And when to that is added the fact
that you had three handkerchiefs, each marked with
ditferent initials, which you also confessed were not
yours, I am not surprised that they collared you as a
professional."

"The pocketbook and the handkerchief were either
thrust into my overcoat pocket by I'eal thieves who
wanted to escape pursuit, or they were placed there by
some blackmailer."

"How IS it you did not make that statement or some-
thing like it to the Commissary of Police ?"

"Because I was afraid of being laughed at."

"Please explain what yoii were doing so far awaj'
from your dei^artment office as the Printemps stores ?"

"I was in search of a certain toilet article which my
wife had been eager to have for a long time, and which
I wanted to surprise her with."

"You had nothing on your person to identify you—
not even a visiting card."

■ 'I never carry one ?"

"How was it you were not wearing your Legion of
Honor ribbon ?"

"I forgot, when I changed my clothes in the naorning,
to transfer the rosette."

The Prefect was studioiis for awhile. Then he turned
to the Chief of Detectives, who had been listening with
a face of stolid immobility.

"Will you vouch for your men ?"

"1 will; as much as I woiild for myself. They are in-
capable of making a mistake, and they know that the
penalty of a false arrest is their instant dismissal.
They never take a pickpocket into custody until they

have watched him patiently and got him dead to
rights. In this instance, the articles were found on the
man's person."

"But he says, very plausibly, that they could have
been put in his pocket by somebody else."

"That is absurd— and I'll prove it to you. I did not
interrupt him while he was speaking, because I wanted
to give him all the rope he wanted to hang himself
with. He says his is a case of mistaken identity, and
that he was in search of a toilet article for his wife.
Well, it must be a very rare and a very expensive arti-
cle, seeing that at a regulajvhour for a certain number
of days every week for no less than three months he
has been a regular visitor at the Printemps stores. Per-
haps he was waiting for the end of the season to get it
at a reduction."

M. X' — turned ghastly pale. A trembling of the lips
betrayed his intense nervous agitation.

"Go on," said the Prefect, dryly.

"The man can't deny that he has been in the habit,
for three months, of freciuenting certain stores patron-
ized by ladies— especially those where the customers
are young and i^retty. In his admiration for beauty he
gets a little rash— and determines to satisfy himself
that the charms so profuse around him are genuine
flesh and blood. In his— well, scientific — researches his
hands are apt to trip themselves up once in a while in a
pocket with a purse inside it."

"Nol Nol I am no pickpocket," exclaimed M. X .

who from being pale had changed to purple.

"Ahl I comprehend!" said the Prefect, frowning
darkly. Then turning to the craven prisoner:

"You are not a pickpocket— but you are something a
good deal viler and more contemptible. I think we un-
derstand eacji other perfectly."

Monsieur X. understood only too well. He hung his
head and kept sUencc.

The Prefect went on;

"I'oiir wife has applied to me for assistance in find-
ing yoii. She is in one of our office waiting-rooms.
My secretary will take .you to her. Exi^lain to her as
you please j'our absence from home. I would not, if I
were you, be too frank, however. I will assume the
responsibilitj' of discharging you as a case of false ar-
rest. You can go."

Crimson with chagrin and covered with shame, the
government official followed the private secretai-y out
of the office.

"Hereafter," said the Prefect to the Chief of Detec-
tives, when they were alone, "caution your men against
arresting erotic cranks of the public position of M.
X . Such arrests only give rise to scandal."

"It is often very difficult," said the Chief of Detec-
tives, "to tell the difference between a pickpocket and
one of these 'feelers.' In time, men like BI. X bo-
come real pickpockets. They take to stealing hand-
kerchiefs and other souvenirs of the women they pur-
svTe. Often they seize a handkerchief whicli contains a
pocket-book or a roll of money. Like pickpockets, tlic
erotic cranks hang around the large dry goods stcu'es
and crowd against the women. It is quite natural,
therefore, for my men to confound them with the pro-
fessional pickpockets, like whom they act precisely.
There, is, however, one marked difference between
these fellows and pickpockets. The pickpocket is
almost always accompanied by one or two pals. The
erotic crank, on the other hand, always goes alone.

If M. X had disclosed his real name at the station

house. I should have released him at once and notified
you immediately."

"I am not sorry he passed a night in the cells," said
the Prefect. "It maj' cure him."

GARKOTING THEIR VICTIM.

w

PARIS UNVEILED.

■'Never. I'll guarantee that if I put my men on
him it wouldn't Ije a month before he was collared
again. I coiild tell you of a dozen instances of crea-
tures like him who, after being arrested several times,
and realizing that detectiA-es were after them, have had
the audacity to summon a uniformed offleer and give
the detectives into custody as thieves and black-
mailers. No! There is no cure for such animals."

The Chief of Detectives had scarcely taken his leave
before the private secretary returned with a smile on
his face.

"I have never seen anything so absurd as the meet-
ing of M. X with his wife, under the circumstances.

She was as overjoj^ed as he wag cast down, and no
praise was too enthusiastic to bestow on the police.
They went out arm-in-arm."

Just as the Prefect was leaving his of&ce to go to
lunch he received the following report:

Municipal Police, i

Depaetment of Ikquikies, J-

Pakis, , . )

REPORT.

Case of M. X (with photograph).

I have succeeded in accomplishing the task I assumed
an hour ago.

M. X died last night, of cerebral apoplex.v, in a

registered house of ill fame. As there were no papers
on his person, the Commissary of Police sent the body
to the morgue, marked "Unknown."

1 return the photograph supplied by Madame X

Officer (illegible signature).

Under a large "Approved," written on the margin of
the report, the Chief of the Municipal Police had added
the following:

"Shall we notifu the widow ?"

The Prefect added this endorsement:

Unnecessary. M. X must have had a double. He is

alive and in good health. Twenty minutes ago he quitted
my office arm-in-arm with his wife.

— ^0<>— — * — *4V*

CHAPTER II.

THE DIVES OF PARIS.

"Let us enter."

So speaks the Chief of Detectives to the Prefect of
Police, who is accomioanied by his nephew, who ie,
also, his secretary. They were standing outside "The
Red House" (Le Cliateau Rouge), an edifice which, once
the palace of a king's mistress, is now one of the vilest
resorts of the French capital.

In the large apartment which they entered was a bar,
but no chairs or seats of any kind. The frequenters of
the place are too restless to care about remaining in
any one position for any length of time. Another fea-
ture of the den was its gloom.

Nothing eatable is sold on the premises, but the
waiters areiSftvays ready to accommodate customers
who bring their meals with the loan of cracked plates,
bent forks and knives whose points have been caref ullj'
broken oft'. This latter precaution is taken to avoid
the consequences of a free fight, in which the partici-
pants often carve what they call "flesh-and-blood but-
ton-holes" out of their adversaries.

The place is run by an agent or general manager, the
proprietor onl.r dropping in for the daj^'s receipts,
which are always considerable.

It is one of the pi'ivileges of this den that the man
who gfets drunk in it may relieve his stomach of its
contents whenever and wherever he pleases in the
saloon. It is easy to detect, bj' several senses, that
wine is the prevailing beverage. On an average in
good times as many as a liundred casks a month have
been sold. Trade is dull now-a-days, and a cask every
twenty-four hours is the height of business.

It is another of the privileges of the place that every-
body pays strictly in advance. Orders for drinks are
not filled tmtil the money has been "put up" in every

instance. "Give and take." This golden rule prevents
differences of opinion.

"How do they sell their wine?"

"From 60 to 80 centimes [30 to 40 cents] a litre [some
thing more than a quart]."

Jitst as the Bohemians of literature and art have
selected the beer saloons presided over by barmaids
for their resorts, so has The Red House become the
rendezvous of what may be called "Tough-dom." It is
the refuge of some hundred "crooks" whose pro-
fessions even the police are unable to classify or define.

"Although the crowd is pretty thick, it seems to be
peaceable enough."

"Oh, rows are frequent. We have dropped in, how-
ever, during a calm. Let us take a few notes."

"I fancy I can detect under their rags, in some of
these people, quite an air of distinction."

"You are quite right. Some of them are well edu-
cated. Others have wasted fortunes in drini? and
gambling."

'What will you have, gentlemen?" inquired the
waiter.

"Nothin/; at all," replied the j'oung secretary.

"Nothiy ; eh? Well, that's easily got," replied the
waiter wun sullen familiarity.

"Bring us some brandied cherries," interposed the
Chief of Detectives, remarking, as the waiter vanished,
"It's a good deal safer to order something and thus
avoid being noticed. Luckily we are not obliged to
swallow what we order."

The waiter brought the cherries, but held them aloof
from the table.

"Give him forty-five centimes," said the Chief of
Detectives.

12

PAtilS UNVEILED.

"I forgot," said the youns secretary, "that a fellow
pays in advance here."

The words were hardly OTit of his month before a
dispute commenced at a neigliborins; table.

The secretary eagerly approached the disputants.
He found two disguised detectives, known as Humming-
Bird and Porthos, at table with a pair of drunkards
To ingratiate themselves with their neighbors, the de-
tectives had treated all hands, and in return were re-
galed by the drunkards with full particulars of their
transportation to Cayenne after the Commune.

The man swore that when it was noon in Paris, it was
midnight in Cayenne.

The woman furiously averred that when it was mid-
night in Paris it was 6 o'clock in the morning at Cay-
enne.

This difference of opinion would have led to a gen-
eral row if the detectives had not persuaded both of
the disputants that each was in the right.

••Do you see that fellow at the third right-hand table,
reading a letter to a drunken woman ? He is an ex-
lawyer's clerk who has gone to the dogs through strong
drink. He hangs roimd pot-houses and, for a drink,
writes begging letters and bogus letters of ref-
erence for customers. Every time he is arrested for
being drunk his pockets are full of well-written
notes, addressed to prominent people, recom
mending meritorious cases of necessity to their notice.
The next table is occupied by two prostitutes smoking
cigarettes, and a couple of sneaking blackguards who
secretly sell obscene pictures and transparent cards on
the boulevards. Still further on are a lot of the
'barkers' or hawkers, who sell newspapers and pam-
phlets with loud cries of 'Last night's murder!' or
'Frightful scandal— full and minute particulars!'
Mixed in with them are street singers, street musicians
and other bohemians of the lowest class."

"Hooray for the deputy!" bawled a number of
voices.

"What do they mean ?" inquired the Prefect. "Are
there any members of the National Legislature here ?"

"The 'deputy' is a returned convict from Noumea.
Watch him, now that he has taken his seat."

The new-comer cleared his throat and shouted:

"Fellow citizens! There are strangers among us!
Let us bid them welcome. We are all brothers here.
Let us drink the wine of good fellowship and frater-
nity, citizens. Waiter! Two quarts and glasses. I am
a, returned exile, strangers. I had the honor, once
upon a time, to know Rochefort and take him by the
hand. Here's to him!"

"That chap doesn't seem to pay in advance," whis-
pered the voung secretai-y.

"No: he is arinking at our expense. We'll have to
make that good. And if we stay here any longer, he'll
put us to even more expense."

"He's a pretty jovial sort of a convict from Noumea,
isn't he?"

"That's only a gag. He never set his foot there in
his life. Its a good gag to play on the 'crooks,' that's
all."

Just at this moment a man entered with a guitar.

"Let's getout of this," remarked the Chief of Detec-
tives, after paying for the last round. "They have got
on to us and in another minute we shall be swamped
by an invasion of 'fakirs' all ready for a drink at our
expense."

So. to the ill-concealed disappointment of the gentle-
man with the guitar, they left The Red House.

At a sign from his chief, Porthos put himself at the
head of the little procession and the other detective,
Humming-bird, was about to bring up the rear, when

a drunkard grabbed him b.y the arm.

"S'shay!" stuttered this person, 'Isn't it all right,
eh! You look to me as if you wash a little queer, eh?"

"Oh, we're all right," laughed Humming-bird.

At the entrance to the Kue de Trois Portes, the young
secretary made a sudden move. "Here's a poor, ragged
woman lying stretched out on the sidewalk. She looks
as if she might be dead."

"Dead drimk," responded the Chief of Detectives,
cynicall.v. "Even animal life seems suspended. Do
you detect a very loathsome smell? It is a combination
of all the drinks and perfumes popular among women
of her kind. She is still young— hardly thirty years
old." Between her thick lips gleamed fine white teeth.
She must have been pretty at one time.

"How disgusting she looks, all plastered over with
mud."

"She is what they call a 'sidewalker.' "

"What's that ?"

"It is the slang name for a class of prostitutes whose
only home is the scaffolding round some old house
that is being pulled down, or some new one that is be-
ing built. They carry on their trade in the open air
under bridges, in the trenches of the fortifications, in
back alleys, where there are no janitors. Once a week,
regularly, this one fetches up in the station-house. She
comes lawfully b.y her drunkenness. Her mother died
in hospital of delirium tremens. Her father commit-
ted suicide while drank. She herself has almost got to
the end ot her rope. Some day, coming out of a pot-
house, she'll drop dead in the street, and then she'll be
on show, for the last time, at the Morgue. Although
known to thousands, nobody will claim her body, and
she will be turned over to the medical school tor dis-
section."

"What was her parents' business ?"

"Her mother's trade could not be classified. Her
father was a perambulating 'fence,' who iised to ped-
dle stolen goods from door to door."

By this time they had arrived at the Red Flag, a gin-
mill mvich patronized by rag-pickers and fellows who
gather uiJ the butts of cigars and cigarettes.

The tourists entered a long, narrow den full of human
beings seated at tables, on which were displayed the
strong-smelling results of their industry. The "boss"
butt hunter was examining the crop and laying out
the routes for the next day. In a note-book he kept a
memoranda of events aboiit to come off to which a
crowd would be most likely attracted, such as rich
marriages, important funerals, church festivals, etc.—
all of them requiring b.y usuage or law the casting
away of a cigar or a cigarette by the smoker attending
them. The time and liours of work at this trade vary,
according to the plate, and the lowest receipts of anj
butt-hunte!' never falls below two francs (forty cents).

The proceeds of the day's work are spread out on a
long board and sold, both at wholesale and retail.

The popular beverage, here, seemed to be coffee,
sold at 10 centimes (5 cents) a cup, which was much en-
joyed by the butt hunters in .^n atmosphere so dense
and pungent that the visitors could scarcely breathe.

Leading out of the barroom was a filthy apartment,
covered with straw, that was apparently but seldom
renewed, on which reclined a number of men, sepa-
rated from each other by ropes, just like horses in
stalls.

"Let us get out of this, for heaven's sake," protested
the young secretary. "My eyes smart as if they had
been rubbed with onions and red pepper."

The fetid air of the street seemed actuall.y refreshing
after the stench and suffocation of "The Red Flag."

A YOUNG THIEF.

PARIS un VEILED.

"And now,"" obBerved the Chief of Detectives, "we
are in the Kue des Anglais."

This narrow alley is a sort of passage for women of
the town and their "lovers."

"That little shed you see there," continued the Chief
of Detectives," is a sort of refuge for the naale and
female drunkards who hang around here. The officers
on post here make regular raids on it every night, and
capture any number of strumpets who have laid down
there to sleep off their potations."

"How do you explain the fact that this alley is such a
favorite resort of drunkards ?" inquired the Prefect.
"Why are there more here than elsewhere ?"

"They all come from the bucket-shop right in front
-of us, at No. 4. It is famous among tramps and vaga-
bonds as "Old Father Spectacles'!' It was opened some
tliirty years ago bj' a man named Lefevre, who always
wore an immense pair of copper goggles. He usually
carried them on his forehead, and used to cause his
customers a gi-eat deal of amusement by incessantly
asking his wife what had become of them. It was this
old rascal who first oi'namented the place with the ob-
scene cai'toous which you will see in a moment, and
which have been added to from time to time by all his
successors.

"The present proprietor of this delectable den only
pays 750 francs rent ($150). His expenses are very small,
and he sells an immense quantity of brandy and other
alcoliolic drinks. Wine is not by any means his lead-
ing article, and yet he sells about six or seven barrels
every month. The place consists of two long and nar-
row saloons, separated by a wooden partition. For
some reason or another the fui'ther one is known as
'The Senate.' "

While the Chief of Detectives was dispensing this
information, the door of "Father Spectacles' " estab-
lieliirient was kept btisy. Every instant it opened to
admit fresh customers, most of whom wei-e much un-
der the weather already.

Standing before it the visitors heard, every time it
swung open, a rumbling noise, which at times swelled
into a roar like the breakers on a beach.

"Let us enter," said the Chief of Detectives.

The Prefect and his nephew followed.

The first inspiration was a deadly shock to their
lungs, so vitiated and so suifocative was the atmos-
phere of the groggery.

It was a hideous mixture of evaporative alcohol, sour
wine and the belchings of overloaded human stomachs,
some of which, to poison the air still more, had vom-
ited their contents. This stench of drunkenness was
further intensified by the dense fumes of ground up
cigar butts, rescued from the gutters and smoked in
reeking pipes.

The crowd was so great that the three visitors had to
ply their elbows vigoroiisly to get in. After a sharp
struggle they forced their way to the door in the
wooden partition which separated the two saloons
from each other.

Looking dimly through a fog of pungent tobacco
smoke, they descried a long zinc-covered bar, behind
which were enthroned the proprietor and his wife.
Between the bar and the wall the space, narrow and
confined, was filled by a villainous mob of wretches,
all of them drunk, all of them shouting and yelling,
and all of them gesticulating. Behind this hedge of
carousing topers was a long bench fastened to the wall
iinder two or three rows of wine barrels, and on the
Joench were five or sis hideous old hags in rags, which
scarcely so much as pretended to conceal their filthy,
shrunken and emaciated nakedness. Some were seated
nodding their heads with the automatic rhythm and

regularit.y of intoxication. Others sprawled at full
length, dead drunk. All of them were snoring, and
one or two of them every moment or two gave out a
hoarse and horrible gi-oan.

The further extremity of the bench— which was
reserved exclusively for feminine customers— between
two of the most villainous-looking beldames, sat a girl
with fresh, rosy cheeks, who still retained youth and
comeliness, and who was fighting against the drowsi-
ness which was rapidly getting the best of her.

Sitting there, sad-eyed and melancholy, with a
pensive, far-away expression in her pretty eyes, she
might have been taken for some faithful daiighter or
sister who sought to rescue a relative from this hell —
or, perhaps, even more plaiisible, some abandoned
sweetheart searching for her betrayer.

It wag impossible to view without emotion this mere
child lost in a crowd of alcoholized brute beasts.

It was a fleeting hallucination, however, for, on ap-
proaching her, every respiration that came fiwm be-
tween her rosy lips was loaded with the mingled odors
of wine, brandy and absinthe.

Her eyes were fixed dreamily on the door.

Was she waiting for anybody ?

Yes— she was waiting for everybody. As each new-
comer entered she saluted him with a vague smile in
hopes of being treated to a fresh "turn" of the yellow
liquids which gleamed behind the bar.

If she was spoken to she would tiT to fix her drunken
glance on the speaker. Her lips would attempt a
meaning smile, and with a husky voice, so sodden with
liquor as to be hardly audible, she would murmur:

"You're v-v-ery good. Buy me a drink of brandy I"

It was not with desire to drum up customers that
this streetwalker haunted the den of Father Spectacles.
That biisinesB she could carry on with more profit else-
where. Her desire was a mere yearning to get drunk.
That accomplished she would drop off to sleep, pillow-
ing her head on the body of another drunkard and
snore in absolute oblivion until the hour arrived for
closing up the dive.

The saloon at the further end of the place called, as
before stated, "The Senate," contained tables almost
touching each other, at which customers, male and
female, were packed like herrings in a barrel.

They made room, however, for the new comers, and
a ghastly smile of welcome went round the unwhole-
some place.

The uproar was something indescribable. Some
were shouting, some were screaming, some were re-
citing obscene verses. Five or six indecent chonises
were being sung at the same time. Language of in-
credible foulness was roared from one to another,
shrieks of drunken laughter and the crash of broken
glass were incessant.

To overhear one's neighbor, one had to bend his ear
right to his mouth. The solitary waiter, sweating like
a runaway horse, was in evil hiimor. Woe to the man
who stood in his way. A thrust with the shoulder or a
dig with the elbow would send him staggering against
the wall, often to drop with a thud ou the stomach of
one of the snoring harridans on the bench.

Everything was paid for in advance, and all drinks
cost 15 centimes (1)4 cents).

The decorations of this dive are its most remarkable
characteristic— for the paintings on the walls, which
were singularly well executed, were filthy and obscene
beyond description. Human beings, male and female,
were represented, life size, engaged in performances
and operations which are never mentioned even among
savages.

Eows are frequent in "The Senate," but they are

PARIS UNVEILED.

treated as mere family quarrels, and the police seldom
interfere. K the outbreak assumes a formidable
character, the waiter, who is a stalwart and desperate
youug fellow, "bounces" the combatants into the alley,
wliere a ring obligingly forms, and the dispute is
fought out until the disputants are either exhausted or
reconciled, upon which they return to the dive and go
to drinking again.

As in The Red House, it was necessary to call for
drinks at Father Spectacles'. The Chief of Detectives
ordered a round of cherry brandy. Seated by the
j'-oung secretary was a toothless beldame, who looked
with covetous eyes on the contents of his glass.

"Aren't you going to treat?" she inquired, with a
hideous grin.

"If you want this you are welcome to it," said the
young secretary.

"Bah!" she exclaimed; "I never touch sweets. Call
for a big glass of white brandy."

The waiter brought a tumbler full of highwine,
which she emptied at a single gulp.

"There," she growled; "that's what I want every
time. Extract of vitriol's mother's milk compared
with it. It stings all the way down."

At this point a man with a violin made his appear-
ance and began to tune up. At the first squeak of his
instrument loud cries uprose.

"Shut up!" roared a voice from the end of the
saloon.

"Stow your old fiddle," bawled a second.

"We don't want any of your gut-scraping ?" yelled a
third.

The waiter struck one of the tables a blow which set
all the glasses jingling.

"Silence !" he bellowed— and silence followed.

The fiddler ran his bow over the Strings and com-
menced a ballad of which he said he had written both
the words and the music.

He began :

"Softer and whiter than ermine !"

"There's no vei-min here !" yelled a drunken rough,

"Put him out !" howled another.

"Softer and whiter than ermine "

"To h ^1' with j'our d d vermin," shouted the

first voice.

'Gentlemen, give a poor devil some show !" pro-
tested the musician. "I've got to raise the price of my
night's lodging."

"Take this for your night's lodging !"— and a heavy
tumbler whizzed past the fiddler's head and smashed
to pieces on the wall. One fragment, rebounding,
shivered a pane of glass in the door of the wooden
partition.

The drunken mob rose to its feet like one man. Each
grabbed a glass or a bottle. The waiter rushed forward
to seize the offender, but he clutched tight hold of his
table and could not be moved.

In a minute there were two excited, yelling, shriek-
ing, frantic factions, one siding with the waiter, the
other with the fellow who had hurled the tumbler.

"Bounce him!" ci'ied one crowd.

"Let him alone!" shouted the other.

In the hurricane of uproar which followed, the three
visitors, not without great difficulty, elbowed their
way into the open air and safety,

"The proprietors of these dens," observed the Chief
of Detectives, "enjoy excellent reputations and are
abundantly well fixed. They get rich in trafficking in
the vices and passions of humanity. One of them has
just purchased a magnificent furnished apartment
house in the Bue St. Denis. Another has a splendid
country seat. A third takes a regular European tour
every summer. When they retire from trade they give
the cut direct to everybody they used to know and deal
with. They will become men of influence, philanthro-
pists, municipal counsellors, or even officers of the
civil government. They will preach virtue and give
rewards to good children. When they die they will be
lamented as public benefactors."

"Where do the drunkards we have seen take their
meals ?"

"Most of them do without eating regularly. They
live on an exclusive diet of alcohol. Whenever they
find the pangs of hunger grow intolerable they go to
some cheap restaurant, of which there are plenty. One
of the most curious is that on the Bue de Breore, near
the Place Maubert. It is at the end of a dii'ty, blind
alley, and looks more like a coal cellar than a restau-
rant. There are fifteen tables in it and it is always
crowded.

"Besides the drunkards of the neighborhood, it is
patronized by beggars, peddlers, blind men, dog deal-
ers, butt hunters, rag pickers. Thieves and prosti-
tutes are not admitted. From the soup to the dessert,
all dishes are five cents, and, incredible as the state-
ment may ajjpear, both the viands and the drinks are
sound, abundant and palatable."

CHAPTER in.

•HIGH" AND "LOW" CROOKS.

"Among the reports of the Municipal Police received
yesterday in your absence," said the secretary next
morning to the Prefect, "is this maniiscript sewed to-
gether with pink silk. It relates to the woman who
calls herself Manilla."

"Read it," said the Prefect.

"The real name of this female is Eosella Fraisen.
She is called Manilla because of her habit of smoking
cheroots. She was born in Prague, in Bohemia.

"Her mother was of German origin and kept a small
shop hard by the Theatre Royal, Berlin. Her father
was a leading actor who used to be a great favorite in
BusBia. She hardly so much as saw her father twice

in her life. Brought up by strangers, she never showed
any feelings of affection or regard for her family.

"Well educated, intelligent and always smiling, so
as to disclose her two rows of pearly teeth, she was in
early youth quite a celebrated beauty.

"In person, she is tall and well built, though appa-
rently slender, and has very agreeable and fascinating
manners. One of her peculiarities is the enormous
quantity of silky brown hair which covers her bead.
Her eyes, which are hazel, are very bright and expres-
sive, and her voice is sweet and musical.

"To all appearances she is full of gayety and quite
childish in her ways, although she conceals a tigerish

PARIS UN- VEILED.

dieposition under a very charming exterior.

•'Takinfi to a life of prostitution at eighteen, at thirty
years of age she still preserves enough of her beauty
and fascination to turn the heads of men old enough
and experienced enough to be on their guard.

"Her admirers can be divided into two classes— those
who are blindly devoted to her and with whom she
does what she jdeases, and regular rounders who
"work" her for money.

"After throwing away two fortunes in cards, she sud-
denly took it into her head to go upon the stage and
' appeared in a burlescxue at the Vaudeville, when she
made a hit by her shape alone.

"A rich German banker who used to be on very in-
timate terms with her mother, took her off the stage
and made her register a vow never to appear again be-
hind the footlights. She has faithfully kept her word
and never since reappeared in public.

"She lives at a tremendous rate and spends money
recklessly. At the present moment she is immensely
rich. Recently a Kussian prince gave her a diamond
necklace worth three hundred thousand francs
($60,000).

"Her carriage, which is drawn by two superb black
horses, is one of the most remarkable in Paris, and
she rides down the Bois de Boulogne as if she were an
empress.

"Her apartments are simply superb. Such a collec-
tion of rugs and tapestries and bric-a-brac doesn't ex-
ist elsewhere in the city.

"Her private boudoir is lined with padded pink silk
and heavily perfumed. The hangings are of black
velvet, embroidered in gold and silver with tropical
plants and flowers and birds of gorgeous plumage.
The curtains are of the same material, looped up with
chains of solid silver.

"The boudoir is always in a sort of dim twilight,
which at nightfall is faintly illuminated by a small
silver watch-lamp. But at a moment's notice this twi-
light is dispersed by the rays of a magic lantern which
shines through a panel of ground glass. A negress
manages the lantern, which in an instant pours a con-
stantly changing flood of.light and color into the room.
Pure white, pale yellow, green, blue, pink and blood
red are the various tints which rapidly succeed each
other.

"There is only one picture in the boudoir— a portrait
of Manilla, painted by a daring young artist of the
most realistic school. It was rejected by the Salon on
account of its- wonderful naturalism.

"The negress who manipulates the lantern is a mag-
nificent specimen of her race. Her head is simply
hideous, with its thick, woolly covering. Her nose is
broad and thick; her lips swollen and- bleached; her
teeth protruding and flat. Manilla found her on a re-
cent trip to the United States, and persuaded her to
accompany her to Paris.

"She wears moccasins of snakeskin, and her only
garment is a waistband of black silk, with a heavy gold
fringe, which is knotted at her hips and ends just at
the knees. She has never been known to utter a word
to any of her mistress' visitors.

"It is one of the whims of Manilla that on her black
satin garters she wears, worked in diamonds, the date
of the month and the name of the day of the week.

"For each one of her numerous lovers she scents
herself with a special perfume, and is even suspected
of drenching her garments with a mysterious fluid
which has a strange influence on all who come within
range of it.

"Among her favored admirers is a young American
who calls himself Antonio, (Note— This Antonio was

Antonio Terry, the rich young Cuban who died re-
cently and left a fortune to his English wife.— Editor).
This young man, who is not twenty years old, has on
several occasions urged Manilla to go to England with
him and get married. Luckily for him, she refuses mar-
riage, and prefers her present condition of personal
liberty."

' 'So far so good-and a very pretty little romance it is. "
observed the Chief of Detectives when the Prefect's
secretary had finished his reading. "But now for the
facts: Manilla is a married woman who is separated
from her husband. At Berlin she was the cause of a
duel, which was afterward followed by a suicide,
on account of which the German police gave her orders
to quit the country.

"She took refuge in Russia, where she was in due
time hunted out by the authorities.

"She next turned up in London and made a sensation
in Hyde Park, through which she used to parade her-
self in a black carriage drawn by a magnificent pair of
white horses, the manes, tails and hoofs of which were
stained red. Her residence in Paris has not been a long
one— but it has been quite long enough to enable her
to do a great deal of mischief.

"Mark her," said the Prefect shortly, "for an im-
mediate warning to leave the country. And now for
your promised lecture on pickpockets."

"Professional pickpockets," said the Chief of Detec-
tives, "are carefvilly educated in their early youth.
After a series of theoretical lessons they are promoted,
when sufiiciently advanced, to practice on a dummy
figure, which is dressed in men's clothes and covered
with sleigh-bells. It is hung from the ceiling by a
wire in such a manner that the smallest contact with
it sets the bells ringing furiously.

"As soon as a youngster can snatch a purse or a
pocketbook from the person of the dummy without
making the bells ring, he is pronounced fit to go out
and 'work' the crowds on the streets.

"The most severe test of the young thief's skill is to
require that he shall 'snatch' a watch chain from the
dummy wlthoiit setting the bells ringing."

"By the way," interrupted the Prefect; "have you
got any news of the burglai-y reported night before
last at Passy ?"

"Yes, sir; my men have just made an arrest in con-
nection with it."

"Good. Give me the particulars."

"Last night, at the Theatre Folies, Bergeres, a woman
of the tO'UTi, who is known as Gloria and who liveB on
the Rue Mosnier, was accosted by a well-dressed man
with a very forbidding countenance. With an accent
half French and half German he inquired of her if she
was of easy virtue, and when she replied in the affirm-
ative wanted to know if she was duly registered. The
girl again said 'yes,' and he treated her to supper at
the Cafe Anglais. On retiring with him afterward, she
was astonished to see him fix a bolt on the door, which
he closed hermetically. He then took out of his
pockets a heavy revolver, a dagger, two or three hand-
fuls of silver coin, a gold watch and a small bottle
covered with parchment.

"She asked him what might be the contents of the
bottle, and he replied that it was a remedy against epi-
lepsy—a disease from which he suffered greatly— which
had been compounded for him by an Austrian phy-
sician.

"Before morning I was advised of his presence, and
on leaving her house he was arrested by my agents.
On searching him we found in his pockets nineteen
bank notes of one thousand francs each, and three
pocketbooks containing fifty louis apiece (a louis be-

PAIilS UNVEILED.

ing equal to live dollars). There were no papers to
give any clew to his identity, and neither his clothes,
linen or hat had a single mark of any soi-t whatever.

"His dagger was in a leathern sheath and his revol-
ver was of American manufacture, but neither of them
had any distinguishing characteristic.

■'The revolver must have been recently used, for one
of the cartridge shells is empty and the barrel of the
firearm is blackened with powder.

"In the crown of his beaver hat, concealed in the
lining, was the small phial mentioned by the woman
Gloria. It contained, not a remedy against epilepsy,
but a small quantity of chloroform."

"He is evidently a prominent and first-class criminal.
Has he made any stateiaent?"

"None whatever. Two facts induce me to suspect
him of being one of the thieves who first robbed the
Lyons bank and then the institution at Passy. One of
these facts is that the money found on him corre-
sponds exactly with that stolen at Passy— the other
that while supping at the Cafe Anglais he drank a good
deal of Maraschino and brandy— just like one of the
Lyons gang."

"I suppose you have these fellows catalogued and
classified down to^a fine point ?"

"I have been at a good deal of trouble to arrange the
various classes of professional thieves by their slang
names.

"For instance there are:

"Cambrioleurs—Toova thieves, from the slang word
cambriole, a room.

"CarroMbZcMzs— false-key thieves; from carrouble,
slang for false key.

••Fric-Fracs—dooT bursters.

" Vanterniers—vfin&ow thieves.

"Boucarmiersshop thieves.

"And a lot of others.

"All thieves are divided into two great sections—
'high crooks' and 'low crooks'. High crooks are tlie
finely-trained, fastidious, artistic rascals, who know
their business and go about it with system and judg-
ment. Low crooks are the careless, clumsy, hungry
Bcoundrels, who have neither system nor finish. High
crooks and low crooks occasionally work in company,
but not often. When they do, it is always tlie high
crook who does the scheming and lays out tlie work,
which is executed by the low crook.

"Novices in thieving principally occupy themselves
in shop-lifting, which is practiced in several waj's.
They begin very young and do some excellent work
occasionally. One of the favorite 'rackets' of these
novices is to snatch money from counters, or goods
while they are being displayed.

"As soon as a novice or 'rat,' as he is called, gets the
collar, he is sent to la Petite Roquette, where he is
thrown in with full grown crooks and gets the finishing
touches put on his criminal education. He leaves the
House of Con-ection uaturated with vice and villainous
instruction."

"A good many of tlie pickpockets arrested every day
are foreigners, are they not ?"

"Most of them are of foreign extraction. English
and Italians are the most numerous."

"Which in your judgment are the most dangerous ?"

"Those who give you no clue to their character, and
who operate in a noiseless well-trained way. These
first-class operators you come -across everywhere— at
the races, in theatres, churches, on the Stock Exchange,
in the clubs— even at official receptions."

"Nonsense 1"

•'Yes, sir; 1 have (luietljr arrested some of the most

daring at receptions— right here in the Prefecture of
Police."

"And you never notified the Prefect ?"

"What would have beeu the use ? They wece such
charming gentlemen and such fascinating ladies that
nobody would have believed them capable of such a
thing."

"I have heard a great deal about a gang of thieves
who are said to be called "the chloroformists.' Does
such an organization ai'tuall.v exist ?"

"It does. They have a trick, among otliers, of offer-
ing their victims drugged cigars. In some instances
death has followed."

"What sort of creatures are these first-class thieves?"

"A great many of them are liiglily educated and have
the most refined and luxurious tastes. That is so much
in our favor, for they cannot bear to live out of Paris,
and when they make a big haul they invariably come
to the capital to spend it. To head them off and keep
them vinder control, I have established a corps of spec-
ial officers who confine themselves exclusively to himt-
ing down and shadowing professionals. They stick to
their trail like bloodhounds, and sometimes pay for
their diligence and fidelity with their lives. Officers
and crooks emploj' tlie same agencies, tricks, devices
and disgviises. To oppose the constantly increasing
host of rogues and vagabonds, most of them highly
accomplished and exceptionally intelligent, we need
another army of at least equally shrewd and industri-
ous officers.

"During the International Exposition of 18G7 two hun-
dred pickpockets were caught in the verj^ act of com-
mitting their depredations. It was while arresting
these malefactors that the detective police made a very
curious and interesting di8cover.v.

"Thirty of the pickpockets were supplied with stop
watches, made with independent second hands, all ex-
actl.v alike in every particular. There were no clues to
the name and residence of the manufacturer. On each
case was a star, etched with a needle.

"When brought face to face these fellows pretended
not to know each other. They were all convicted with-
out any confession being extorted from them, and were
sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.

"Carried in the right pocket of each man's vest, the
watches gerved for a badge and tallying mark by means
of which these international rogues recognized and
identified each other.

"Quite recently I learnt that a rich American, business
unknown, who spoke several languages, had ordered
for the Exposition of 1867 one hundred watches of ex-
actly this description, costing five hundred francs
(SlOO) apiece. The thirty we seized on the persons of
the thieves we apprehended were, beyond question,
some of that lot.

"A member of the gang, as you v?ill perceive, who
turned up missing at the designated hoiir, meant one
of them in police custody. The signal for the disap-
pearance of the whole crowd, therefore, was the non-
appearance of a single enlisted thief.

"This jjroves that what we call Pickpocket Masonry-
dates as far back as 1867. Since then the confederated
thieves have turned up on all occasions- on steamboats,
on railroads, at parades and processions, and especially
on the race tracks. They are always to be found 'work-
ing' wherever crowds are gathered together. They
are especially busy in mass-meetings where much en-
thusiasm is displayed,

"The true pickpocket is no ordinary, commonplace,
low-born, ill-bred criminal. A good many of them are
known elsewhere as people of established position —
sometimes even of respectability. Some of them are

SHE GAVE HIM PARTICULAR FITS.

PARIS UNVEILED.

Baloon keepers or cigar dealers. Others are jewelers
' or dealers in the precious metals. All of them have
the appearance of honest tradespeople. They only
practice their criminal trade during 'business hours.'
The rest of the time they enjoy themselves as gentle-
men of leisure.

"The English pickpocket is the best known. You run
across him everywhere; but that does not imply that
he is the most skilful or the most prosperous. He en-
joys a reputation, which is a good deal better than he is
entitled to. He is stiff and mechanical, and though his
hands and fingers are nimble and well trained, he goes
too much by rule.

"He is a tireless walker and, in the course of a single
day, manages to 'take in' all the crowded parts of
Paris. So great is his pedestrianism that he wears out
the officers who are shadowing him in hopes of getting
him 'dead to rights.' He is, also, remarkable for his
caution. He never 'takes chances.' He never stays
more than ten minutes in one place, and never goes
through two victims in the same crowd. There is an
exception to be noted to this general rule in the case of
the race-tracks. There he is emboldened by the ex-
citement and general heedlessness, and commits rob-
bery after robbery, often without moving once. He is
the only cool man in a sea of wild enthusiasm and up-
roar.

"His favorite haiint at the races is the paddock in
which the jockeys are weighed.

"Dressed in the height of fashion and backed up by
skilful accomplices, he works like a dramatic star sup-
ported by a well trained and thoroughly rehearsed
company. When a rich sportsman approaches a book-
maker's stand with a view to entering a bet, some of
the gang get in his way while others hustle him in the
rear. Surrounded by a crowd of men who, so he
thinks, are bent on betting, like himself, he is shoved
and bounced from one to another like a big rubber
ball. As soon as he grows giddy and loses his head,
the chief operator watches his opportunity and
'snatches' his valuables. The plunder at once flies
from hand to hand until it is far beyond all chance of
recovery.

■'As soon as a haul is made the gang disperses, and
its members keep apart for awhile, amusing them-
selves as best they can. By and by they tackle a fresh
victim and go throiigh the performance exactly as be-
fore. At the end of the day the 'takings' are compared
and added up, in the most business-like way possible
to imagine, and each man receives his share.

"These English pickpockets have their signals and
their system, just as the police have. They inform
each other, under the code, whether business is good
or bad, and it is a curious fact that they never give any
information or encouragement to operators of another
nationality.

"Generally speaking, all Northern born pickpockets
are alike. English, Bussian, Poles and Germans are
all cold, methodical, audacious and persistent. They
scarcely ever let go of a chosen victim until they have
cleaned him out.

"The German's specialty is the 'run-in'— a name ap-
plied to the act of knocking so violently against a per-
son as to confuse him to a degree enabling the thief
to 'snatch' his money or jewelry.

"To carry out his plans, he takes as a partner any
kind of pal who may turn up, no matter whether he be
English, Italian, Spanish or French. When he works
he never bothers his head about the risks he runs, and
he does not lose a minute. As soon as he sees a victim
putting something valuable in one of his pockets, he
Bticks to him like a shadow and only quits him when

he has collared all his available property. He seldom
hangs around the big shops or the race courses, and
operates principally in big banking houses and other
financial establishments. There he posts himself to
see who receives large sums of cash and where it is
placed by the receivers. He snatches the pocketbook
the moment he has located it, before the victim, in
some instances, has made a dozen steps.

•'Another German specialty is the 'lifting' of a cash
box while the man in charge of it is distracted by
something else. This kind of robbery generally takes
place in banks, where large sums of money are to be
seen. The thieves begin by becoming thoroughly
acquainted with the various locations, entrances and
exits. Then they operate with security and confidence.

"Whenever a German is caught 'dead to rights' he
calls himself a 'bookmaker.' But he never gives his
real name or address. Though he may have been con-
victed a dozen times, it is only by good luck that we
can ever make sure of the fact. It is a safe rule that
he is always sentenced under an alias.

"It is not from the North alone that we get our pick-
pockets. Italy and Spain supply us with a good num-
ber of 'artists,' who are easily recognized by their
black hair and dark complexions.

"Spanish pickpockets deserve a special mention.
They are just as pious as they are rascally, and wear
all manner of chaplets and relics and scapularies. In
fact, they place their trade under the special protection
and patronage of the Holy Virgin.

"The moment they are arrested they drop on their
knees and invoke the Madonna and all the saints to
prove their innocence. No matter how overwhelming
the evidence against them, they declare that they are
wrongfully convicted and call heaven to witness that
they are the victims of mistaken identity or oflicial
malice.

"These Spanish thieves go to work much as their
English confreres. As soon as rogues of either nation-
ality make a haul they go to the nearest drinking house
and imbibe several drinks of brandy to put heart in
them, as the phrase goes.

' 'The Italian pickpocket is easily the best and smartest
of all. He knows and thoroughly appreciates his su-
periority, and sneers at the entire police of Europe.
He goes on 'working' the same neighborhood inces-
santly, without caring a particle for the fact that the
officers of the law are on the look out for him. But,
in the long run, his audacity ruins him, for he slips
up when he least expects it, and the police seize him.

" He is the artist of crime, is the Italian.

" The Frenchman is eclectic. He trains with 'pals'
of every other nationality, and he 'works' according
to their rules. But in a convention of pickpockets the
Italian would be unanimously chosen president. His
elegant manners, his sprightliness and his courtesy
make him especially dangerous. As soon as he descrys
a victim, he brushes up against him, very lightly, and
then apologizes so gracefully that the victim is too
charmed and flattered to realize that he is being robbed.

" From the point of view of dexterity, the Spaniard
is the Italian's only rival. He, likewise, operates with
ease and subtlety and lightness of hand.

" A pickpocket never wears a glove on his right hand,
and, usually, as a cover to his operations, he carries a
light overcoat over his left arm. In winter he would
attract attention if he carried the overcoat on his left
arm, so he replaces it with a big silk neckerchief. At
the entrance of a church or theatre he uses his hat as a
shield.

"The operation of pocket-picking is a most delicate
one, Two fingers only are inserted in the pocket. In

18

PARIS UNVEILED.

the lightest and daintest manner they seize the pocket-
book, which IB held suspended for two seconds that
the owner may not feel a sudden jar. At the same
instant the confederate, who is in the rear, pushes

matter and in a moment his pocketbook has vanished.
"When the pocket is deep or closed by a button, the
pickpocket is momentarily — only momentarily— re-
pulsed. The next instant his whole hand is inserted

against the victim. The victim turns to see what is the I and the thing is done."

CHAPTER IV.

MOBE CURIOUS DETAILS OF THE WAY IN WHICH FRENCH CRIMINALS OPERATE.-AT THEIR WOI
-THE SCENES FREQUENTLY VISIBLE AT THE RAILROAD STATIONS.

"An experienced o£B.cer is not satisfied with arresting
the chief operator only. He always tries to collar his
'covers' or pais.

"That is why the 'chief invariably passes the plun-
der to the next 'cover,' who passes it to a second,
who, in turn, passes it to a third, and so on until it is
in safety.

"This makes it easy for the operator, when arrested,
to insist upon his innocence, and protest with all the
assurance in the world:

"You are mistaken, sir; I haven't got anything of
yours. I give you permission to search me.'

"Then the 'covers' come forward and testify to the
impossibility of the theft having been committed by
their 'pal.' If they see that the of&oer is inexperi-
enced, they talk loudl5^ of seeing that he is heavily
fined for his grave mistake. Very often, in such a case,
the detective thinks it is possible the victim maybe de-
ceived, and lets the pickpocket go.

"This is how they 'work' passengers at railway sta-
tions:

"As soon as a victim walks toward the compartment
of a car, one of the 'covers,' made up as a tourist,
with a valise in his hand and a bag slung over his
shoulder, gets in front of him on the top step of the
car, so as to give the 'operator' a chance.

"Just behind the victim is another 'cover,' who gives
him a shove, as if by accident. This enables the oper-
ator to 'lift' the victim's purse unobserved. The
moment the trick is done, the 'cover' in front ex-
claims: 'Oh! this is the wrong train,' and promptly
vanishes.

"The performance is as brisk and as rapid as a flash of
lightning.

"The actual operator usually takes the train and gets
OTXt at the first station. When rkilroad cars are taken
to the repair shops, the workmen always find a certain
number of empty purses and pocketbooks which have
been concealed by pickpockets.

"Very often two gangs of pickpockets 'work' the
same territory without knowing each other. As they
thread the crowd the two gangs observe each other,
take each other for officers and then make a sudden
and rapid disappearance.

"It is often very difficult for an officer to conceal his
identity, for an excess of precaution is very apt to put
the thieves on their guard.

"When he sees that he is recognized as a police offi-
cer, the only thing left him to do is to retire to a dis-
tance, without losing sight of the rascals. That gives
him a chance to swoop down on them while they are

dividing up their plunder.

"At least two-thirds of the cases of jjocketpicking in
Paris go unpunished. Thieves are arrested over and
over again with plunder on their persons which has
evidently been stolen, but no report of which has ever
been made to the police. The trouble is that nearly
everybody thinks himself or herself much too clever
and too alert to be possiblj' victimized— until the fatal
moment arrives. Then the contrary is very apt to be
the resiilt of experience.

"For example;

"One of my officers, in search of a gang of money-
snatchers, had occasion to be in a broker's office. Just
by the door sat a young man who was busily employed
in counting gold coins into a big wallet, while he held
a wad of bank notes between his teeth.

"As he passed him, my man remarked, 'That's the
way to get badly robbed.'

" 'Just you try it on,' was the young fellow's reply.

"The officer shrugged his shoulders and passed
along.

"He had not taken fifty steps before there were loud
cries of 'Thieves! Police!'

"The officer ran quickly to the spot, only to be
knocked down, jumped upon and seized by the throat.
It was the young clerk who thus grappled with him,
shouting 'Here is one of the gang!'

"The unfortunate detective had to prove his inno-
cence. In the meantime, the real thief who had
snatched the banknotes out of the clerk's mouth, was
far and away beyond pursuit.

"About three weeks ago, one of the Judges of the
High Court of Paris, leading a child by the hand,
pressed up against the steps of an omnibus near the
station of the Boulevard des Italiens.

"Hardly had he done so when the officers on duty
there saw three men, well-dressed and stylish, eai-h
with a light overcoat over his arm. These fellows sur-
rounded the judge, hustled him gently and then
quickly withdrew.

"Convinced that they had just seen a robbery com-
mitted, the officers made themselves known to the
Judge and asked him if he had missed anything.

"The judge was very indignant at the bare suspicion.
However, he consented to examine his pockets.

" 'No!' he said, coldly, 'I have lost nothing." "

" 'Is your watch safe ?' inquired one of the officers,
pointing to his chain, which was hanging from his vest,
two-thirds of it having been cut off.

" 'You are right,' said tbe judge, penitently. 'I have
t)een robbed,'

SLUGGED HER SISTER.

PARIS UNVEILED.

19

"These pickpockets operate everj'where. A fort-
night ago at the marriage of a niece of the Minister of
the Interior, a well-dressed person stole the pocket-
books of at least ten of the guests.

•'His capture was due to a mere accident.

"Two officers happened to come up just as he was
throwing several articles down the ventilator of a cel-
lar. A pocketbook, striking a bar of iron, rebounded
on the sidewalk.

"The thief tried to take flight, but was arrested and
lodged in the station house where, on being searched,
he disgorged more than 2,000 francs ($400).

"Th-e cellar, which was an old one and abandoned,
was explored by the police who found, among broken
lumber and old boxes, no less than 150 empty pocket-
books.

"Cases are on record where the pickpocket has ac-
tually had the audacity to replace an; empty purse in
his victihi's pocket. In one instance, the rifled pocket-
book of a wife was actually returned to her husband.

"Only the other day, Monsieur and Madame B., who
reside in the Rue Valois, on the Place du Palais Boyal,
entered an omnibus running between the city hall and
the Maillot gate. They took two empty seats and sat
opposite each other.

"They got out at the Champs Elysees and the hus-
band, not having the amount to pay for entrance to the
Exposition, asked his wife for it.

"She at once perceived that her purse had vanished,
and with it no less than twelve francs. She had last
seen it when she took it out on the Bue St. Honore in
oTder to give ten centimes to a little girl who was lead-
ing a blind man.

"In the sculpture gallery. Monsieur B., who was sit-
ting down, became aware of the presence of a solid
body in the right hand tail pocket of his frock coat.
Extracting it, he found it to be his wife's purse, com-
pletely emptied, made fast by a rubber band to an-
other which contained in a secret compartment a twen-
ty-franc piece of the period of Louis Phillippe.

"Madame B. remembered that in the omnibus a wo-
man sitting on her right, who carried a shawl over her
knees had. v?ith a very natural motion, covered her
skirts with it in a manner to conceal the working of
her hands.

"On arriving at his depot the conductor of the omni-
bus found behind the cushions two more purses.

"There is another class of crooks known as 'cut
purses,' who dress and act differently from the ordi-
nary pickpockets. They are never encountered in
shops, or railroad stations. Most usually they wear
a long blue ulster, which is a capital substitute for the
hat or overcoat. Their 'work' is of a much more difli-
cult character than that of the ordinary pickpocket. It
consists in getting possession of the long purse or
pocket which every peasant usually carries. Last year,
at the pork fair at Champigny, the sum of 950 francs
was 'lifted' from a herder and seller of pigs. The vic-
tim had placed a handkerchief over tne mouth of his
money-bag. In the excitement of a quarrel, purposely
got up by the thieves, one of them 'lifted' the handker-
chief and inserted two fingers to steal the bag. The
depth of the pocket, however, made this impossible.
So he inserted his thumb, on the outside. This acted
externally.

"This movement, tenderly executed— the thumb
working outside and the fingers in— prevented the vic-
tim from feeling the bag mount \ip the length of his
thigh. Gradually the lining of the pocket is turned
inside out, like the finger of a glove. When it arrives
at the top, the money bag naturally falls into the hand
of the robber.

"Unfoi-tunately for the thief, in this case, the money
bag was upside down, and from its mouth there slip-
ped several five franc pieces, which fell upon the floor
and attracted the attention of the victim and his
neighbors.

"The pickpocket was captured at once, in spite of the
assistance of his pals.

"He was a good deal of a character, and was not at all
averse to relate episodes of his career.

"One of his stories was quite amusing:

"He saw at a fair a rich countryman, the mayor of
his village, reading in the Petit Journal the exploits of
a gang of pickpockets. The rural magistrate could not
understand how anybody could allow himself to be
robbed In any such manner. 'It is only necessary,'
said the worthj' man, 'to take some such simple pre-
caution as I do. I always carry m.y purse in a double
pocket which my housekeeper has fixed between my
shirt and my vest. When I have my coat buttoned up
over it, it would take a very clever pickpocket to re-
lieve me of my valuables.'

"Thus protected and with his arms folded over his
breast as a further precaution, he stalked through the
fail', inviting, unconsciously, the attention of all
'crooks' to the fact that he had money on his person.

"This is how he was eventually 'worked':

"A rather long match was dexterously inserted at
the back of his neck, between his shirt collar and his
skin. It protruded in such a way that in a crowd or
jostle, that the match head could be touched off by a
lighted cigar or cigarette.

"Then the 'operator' and bis 'covers' surrounded
him as usual.

"In another instant there was a terrible cry.

"The match had been lit and was blazing behind
his neck. His hands flew to the scorched and
endangered spot. This at once left the pocketbook
unguarded, and gave the thieves a chance to tear his
clothes off him on pretence of rescuing him from be-
ing burnt up. In another moment the object of their
ingenious trick was in their hands and they vanished.

"Pickpockets are most fertile in schemes and tricks.
They have the gift of feeling by intuition when there is
a good 'game' to play, and when they have resolved on
a plan of action they carrj' it out at all hazards.

"For instance, a contractor of pviblic works drew the
sum of 65,000 francs ($13,000). When he got his money
he locked it up in a big bag and handed it to his cousin,
who was waiting for him in a cab on the Avenue Vic-
toria.

" 'Look out for it,' he said. 'Don't lose sight of it for
an instant.'

" 'You needn't be afraid,' was the reply, 'I'll keep it
under the seat.'

"The contractor went to several offices, on foot, fol-
lowed by the cab. During the journey the bag was
'lifted.'

"The cousin had remained in the carriage, and the
coachman had not quitted his seat.

"The affair looked inexplicable— and vet. it was very
simple, so far as the thieves were concerned.

"The moment the cab left the Avenue Victoria, loud
and piercing cries were uttered by a well-dressed man
who was struggling in the roadway. He had, to all ap-
pearances, been knocked down and badly hurt by
some omnibus. In reality nothing whatever had hap-
pened to him.

"The clever rascals, bent on robbing the contractor,
had 'put up the job.' While the incautious cousin was
leaning out of th6 window, inquiring the caiise of the
commotion, a cnfining scoundrel h^d slipped his hand
under the seat aid snatched the bag."

PARIS UNVEILED.

"The thief who is an adept in hia nefarious profession,
and who 'works on the parlor floor,' never goes into
the country except with a fine outfit of all the tools
necessary for the accomplishment of his criminal pur-
poses. He carries with him the small sharp knife nec-
essary for cutting out a money-base; a strong, fine pair
of steel scissors to 'nip' watch chains, and the instru-
ment used to make the angular incisions in valises.

"This variety of thief always acts with nerve and
judgment. His operations are invariably large and he
disdains petty crimes, upon which he looks with con-
tempt.

"The lower order of 'crooks,' have their headquar-
ters in dens in the neighborhood of the great markets.
They are the lazzaroni of Paris, and are absolutely in-
capable of honest work of any kind.

"Like their brethren in Naples, they live from day to
day on the proceeds either of theft or begging.

"You can see them everywhere. Sleeping on the
slopes of the fortifications in sttmmer or on the park
benches. Tlieir nourishment is supplied by open-air
dealers in cheap soup and other things.

"As soon as one of these dirty, low-lived rogues
makes a haul, he gets rid of his tatters, takes a bath to
free himself of his vermin, dresses up in second-hand
clothing and becomes a hawker of in-ogrammes, a
ticket speculator, and sometimes, in a small way, a
bookmaker on a race track.

"This philosopher among vagabonds i« the least in-
telligent and provident of them all. He is reckless to a
degree, and seems, often, to lack ordinary sense.

"Lodging-houses exist for him, of which he makes
choice according to his means, which are known as
'The Chamber of Deputies' and 'The Senate,' both of
which are located in the neighborhood of the markets.

"As his ttnconquerable indolence and love of roam-
ing are constantly bringing him up in all sorts of
places, he usually finishes tip by becoming a mere tool
in the hands of the banditti who infest the barriers of
Paris, in time developing into a really dangerous crim-
inal.

"It is from among these 'tramps' that the grand
army of vice and wickedness unceasingly draws its re-
crmtB.

"I assure you that the majority of those who com-
menced life as hangers-on of the markets fetch up
eventually in the courts of justice, become the inmates
of the central prisons, or go out as convict colonists to
Noumea.

"Now, a word about ottr female iiickpockets. These
women have the appearance, dress and manners of the
middle class, and their costume is varied to suit the
character of the places in which they operate.

"You come aoi'oss them in railroad stations, boat
stations, on the promenades, in the theatres and mu-
eetims, and, especially, in the great shops. Thej- only
operate on members of their own sex.

"Especially active are they in the public omnibuses,
which always afford them a very rich harvest.

"On week days the working hours of these women
are from one o'clock to seven. On Sundays and holi-
days thej' 'operate' all day long.

"The changing from one omnibus to another gives
them a splendid chance, for the crowding, jostling
passengers are much too busy trying to get the best of
each other to think of such a thing as a pickpocket.

"When they travel in pairs, one of them 'snatch-es'
the pocketbook and hands it to the other. If the vic-
tim perceives that she has been robbedand grasps the
thief,, the 'pal' drops the purse dexterously at her feet
and, e.xclajms,' 'There's your purse, just where you
dropped it.'

"Then while the victim is eagerly recovering her
money the two pickpockets vanish.

"Sometimes the suspected one insists on being taken
before a commissary of police. On being searched
nothing is found on her, and she often insists on being
indemnified for her arrest with a heavy sum of money.

"The ample skirts and wraps which female pick-
pockets wear afford a capital cover for their operations.

"Once in a whUe these women work in pairs with
male accomplices. In these cases the woman 'operates'
and the man vanishes with the booty. In case the
'operator' is interrupted and caught 'dead to rights.'
the male accomplice comes forward in the cai^acity of
an ofiicer and takes charge of the culprit. He gets the
name and address of the victim, notifies her to attend
at Police Headquarters, and then when her back is
turned lets his prisoner go free.

"The greatest number of female pickpockets come
from Germany, but they are by no means the most
successful or the most skillful.

"The Englishwomen have raised theft almost to the
height and dignity of an art. Blanoeuvring, by prefer-
ence, with their left hands, they always keep the right
gloved.

"Spanish women are easily recognized by their
diminutive figures, their dark complexions and their
raxjid, gliding, insinuating motions. If a police ofBcer
ajjproaches, instead of being alarmed, they quicMj'
get him into conversation. They are extraordinarily
impudent. One of them said to a police officer, whom
she recognized in the stores of the Bon Marche: "My
dear man, you're wasting time here. I'm working; but
you'll never catch me.'

"Frenchwomen as pickpockets do not lack address,
but they are too eager to realize the results of their
operations. The.y lose no time in examining a purse
when they 'lift' one. In that manner they allow them-
selves very often to be collared while counting up the
proceeds of a haul.

"Evers' day a new trick or 'racket' is invented by the
pickpockets of Paris. Eor instance, at the Market of
St. Germain, the other day, a woman, about forty
years of age, conventionally dressed, carried a child
about twenty months old, whose legs and feet she
manipulated so as to get them over the openings to
pockets.

"At the riglit moment she lightly tickled with her
left hand the legs of the child, while the right, masked
by the same ingenious means, accomplished the usual
'operation.'

"If the victim felt a slight rubbing and turned, the
pickpocket would give the baby a slap or two. and
say.

" 'Look out for yotir feet. You're dirtj'ing the lady's
dress.'

"This, naturally, disarms the victim of all suspicion,

"I heard the other day of another modification of
the art of pocketpicking.

"A child, scarcely three feet in height, and not over
eight years of age, was arrested in an omnibus for
robbery from the person. This precious little jailbird
was led around by his brother, a j'outh of seventeen.
Keeping his hands in the pockets of his overcoat, he
easily cleaned out his neighbor's, and, if their suspi-
cions were aroused, his innocent, infantile face at once
reassured them.

"The pockets of his overcoat were bottomless, so that
he had no difficulty in "operating."
■"The 'lifting' r-f a watch and chain was, literally,
:'child's plaj'" to him, and his average winnings were
f rom:eight to ten pocketbooks a daj*— all the proceeds
of which he dutifully turned in to his parents,

AT THEIE MEECY.

pahis unveiled.

"When women pickpockets are arrested they resort
to all sorts of dodges and devices. For instance: We
had to deal, the other day, with a woman who made
her living both t>y theft and prostitution. She was a
very skilf al shoplifter, and was caught in the very act
of 'working' a store.

"On being released from Saint Lazare, she was put
under police surveillance, and two inspectors arrested
her on the Boulevard Sebastopol, not a hundred feet
from the great stores of Pygmalion, where she had
just 'lifted' a parasol, representing a value of twelve
dollars.

"She made no resistance, and submitted with a good
enough grace to the officers. But when she arrived in
the Rue des Lombards, she threw herself on the side-
walk, yelling, 'Help! help! police! police!'

A crowd at once gathered and, without having any
idea of the real facts of the case, took the part of the
thief against the officers. They were only too delighted
to have a chance to show their hatred and contempt of
the law.

"The woman profited by this to exclaim: 'I'm an
honest married woman, with a family. I haven't
stolen a thing. That parasol I swear I paid for. You
have no right to arrest me.' Then, tiirning to the mob,
'These two blackmailers are trying to get some money
out of me.'

"The mob shouted: "Chuck them in the river !
Chuck them in the river.'

"The situation was growing critical. A policeman in
uniform came along. Instead of taking the woman
and her captors to the station house, he insisted on the
two inspectors showing their authority and explaining
the facts of the case. In the confusion, while they
were handling the parasol, the woman managed to es-
cape, and the three officers were left alone to face the
triumphant ridicule of the crowd.

"Prisoners of both sexes are always rigorously

searched. The officers minutely examine their hats,
their shoes, their undergarments— every fold in their
clothes. They make sure that there is no place left in
which can be hidden money or weapons.

"It is no uncommon thing to find money in the
mouths of criminals. The other day a pickpocket
calmly swallowed five pieces of ten francs each.

"One thief had the ingenious notirn of sewing
twenty-franc pieces inside his flannel under-vest.
Another packed bank notes in the lining of his over-
coat and under the insoles of his shoes.

"A high hat serves a thief as a safe or a cash box.
Inside, under the lining, he hides bank bills. On the
outside he conceals, under the band, pieces of five and
ten francs, sometimes even of twenty.

"Years ago the secret police used to capture hun-
dreds of pickpockets on all the race courses in and near
Paris, In those days they had tickets granting them
free access to every part of the track and stands. Now-
adays, these free tickets are not distributed where they
belong— among the real officers— but are bestowed
upon politicians and others. The detectives, instead
of being allowed to carry out their own plans and
work in their own way, are placed under the com-
mand of the police officer in control of carriages.

"This gorgeous gentleman, in his showy uniform,
attracts everybody's attention as he marshals his men
and assigns them to their respective posts of duty.
His principal use for the detectives is to send them in
chase of beggars, programme peddlers and other small
fry.

"On the pretext of economy the municipal police
have arranged for the transportation of ollicers in the
ordinary omnibuses of the General Company, in which
the criminals and crooks easily identify them.

"Last year, under these conditions, seventeen heav-
ily-filled pocketbooks were reported stolen in the
weighing paddock alone.

CHAPTER V.

SAFE BURGLABIES.

The next scene in M. Mace's graphic work is a de-
scription of the trial before a "judge of instruction" of
the unknown thief, mentioned in a preceding chapter,
who called himself "Lover," and said he was thirty
years of age, had been born in Paris and was the son of
a very prominent government official.

The •' judge of instruction,'' a purely French magis-
trate, is one who had been expressly assigned by the
State Attorney to investigate the 'gangs' of Paris. He
knows their composition, speaks their language
fluently, and knows their methods to a dot. He has
rare tact in classifying malefactors and other criminals,
and is of great assistance to the police in giving them
the benefit of his experience.

Here comes a word photograph of the judicial
drama:

The prisoner enters betwen the two officers known as
Humming-bird and Porthos. He confronts the judge,
who raises his eyes and regards him with a mild but
penetrating glance.

" Are you ready to make any statement ?"

""Why not? I was with the fellows who broke open
the safes."

" How many of you were there ?"

"Four."

" Who were your accomplices ?"

" I do not know their names."

" What were their nicknames ?"

"I don't know."

" Where did you make their acquaintance ?"

" On the road."

"You have got a place of meeting?"

"No regular place."

" Don't you desire to speak ?"

"Go ahead and see."

" Lover isn't your name."

" It's the nickname given me by my comrades. My
family is a respectable one and I don't intend to let
them be embarrassed by news of my arrest."

" No doubt you can inform us of the circumstances
which preceded, accompanied and followed the rob-
bery ?"

"I only know one thing, and that was the part I per-
sonally played in the affair. It consisted, principally,
in looking after the dog and seeing that he did not dis-
turb us."

" How did you effect that ? "

" I gave him a large piece of meat that was a, trifle

22'

PAH IS UNVEILED.

etrong and smelt a little. Dogs always prefer It to
fresli meat. In it I inserted the little iJill which put
him to sleep. It took a long while for the drug to
work."
•' How long were you there ? "

" Almost an hour. We were prepared to find one
safe only. The other put out our plans somewhat.
We didn't know which contained the valuables."

" So you carried them both off, in spite of their size
and weight ? "

" They weren't much of a job for four strong men
to tackle."

"Istipposeif you had been interrupted you would
have used the firearms which were found upon you ? '
" Only to scare them."

" Then you confess to having entered the ofBcs and
helped to carry off the safes ? "
" That's aboiit the size of it."
" What was your original plan ?"
" We intended to carry off' the safe in a hack which
one of us had stolen on the edge of the market. If we
bad done that it would never have been seen again."
"Why not?"

•' I'll tell you further on."
" Go on !"

" The hack was old and rickety and so we could not
carry off two safes at once. On that account we would
have had to make two trips. We had calculated the
time— which was very short— and we had gone too far
to retire."
" What had you done '!"

" We were provided with a two-wheeled hand-cart
belonging to the Public Works, which the paviors had
left at the corner of the Rue de Pompe and the Rue de
Longchamps. In the box on the handcart were a lot
of tools— pickaxes, chisels, spades, pincers, crowbars
and other implements, made much stronger than our
own, but not so light or so fine. We dumped the chest
and put the two safes on the hand cart."
" Nobody disturbed you ':•"
' Not a soul."

" If it had not been for this hand-cart, then, you
would not have been able to i^arry off the safe ?"

" Of course not. We would have had to return for
the second safe."
"Where did you leave the hand-cart ?"
•' On the Rue de la Faisanderie."
" How long did it take you to break open the safes ?"
" With the tools we had— about forty-five minutes."
"You persist in refusing to disclose your accom-
plices?"
"I do."

"If you had not been short of time, where would
you have taken the two safes ?"
" To the Rite Boulamoilliers."
" On what floor is your hiding-place ?"
" Oh ! in the basement. But what is the use of wast-
ing anj^ more time in questions ?"
■■ How do you get in there ?"
" Like any ordinary locksmith."
" Do the janitors know you there '?"
" There is only a' janitress. Perhaps she has seen me,
b\it she certainly doesn't know me by name."
" Are you willing to take me there ?"
" With all the pleasure in life."

The house in the Boulamoilliers was, to all appear-
ances, a' very respectable one. A middle-aged woman
was the janitress. In reply to a question from the
judge she said that she had a Monsieur Monsignor
for a tenant.
" What is his business ? "
"1 believe he is a dealer in antiquities."

"Is he in?"

"No. He is out of town. In fact, his real residence
is in Anvers. He never sleeps here, and uses the base-
ment floor for a storeroom, in which he keeps a lot of
things, which are alwaj's carefully packed up."
" Who brings his goods here ? "
"Oh! Different men."
" Are they well dressed ? "

"Just about as well as you and the other gentlemen
are."
"How many of them are there ? "
" Three— sometimes four."
" Would you recognize Monsieur Monsignor ? "
"Easily."

"Look at this man, who is charged •with breaking
into an inhabited building and committing a robbery."
" That is not Monsieur Monsignor. I have never
seen him before that I know of. My tenant is bigger
every way. His hair and beard are red and he wears
them quite long."

"How do these men of whom you speak get into
Monsieur Monsignor's quarters ? "
"With a regular latch key."
"Have you a latch key?"

"No! The day my tenant signed the lease he had the
lock taken off and a new one put on in Its place. The
fastenings are very strong and if j'ou want to get in
j'ou must get the help of a locksmith."

At a signal from his chief the detective, Humming-
Bird, went in search of the smith who had changed
the locks.

After a good deal of trouble the lock was forced and
an entrance was effected. Then the windows and
shutters were thrown open. The sudden influx of day-
light disclosed, on the floor, three safes surrounded by
empty boxes and packing case8,and a quantity of tools.
On one of the boxes was found a railroad label read-
ing: "Mails. Extra express. Marseilles."
The judge asked Lover the origin of this box.
"I don't know, and if I did this is not the time for me
to tell you. However, I'll show you how we mastered
these safes, which had the appearance of being so
strong and which, as a matter of fact, are worse than
useless. There isn't one of them that is proof against

being . But I've had enough of this nonsense.

Kindly send me back to my cell— for you won't get any
more out of me to-day."

" Wait a minute. I only want to ask you two more
questions."
" Fire away !"

" The sum found on you belonged to C. D. & Co.
Are you willing to restore it to them ?"
•■ Not yet. They're rich and can wait a Uttle."
" How do you know ?"
"By the safe."

"The police found in your hat a little phial filled
with chloroform. What use did you intend to put it
to?"

" That makes a third question and it must be the
last. I won't answer one more. That hat didn't belong
to me."

"That's a shrewd reply. It doesn't compromise
you. Now, be good enoiigh to sign your deposition."

Without a word the prisoner deliberately and slowly
traced, in large Gothic letters, the name of Lover.

Hvimming Bird, who had been listening impatiently
to the interview, hastily fastened the 'come-alongs' to
his captive's wrist.

" I'm a burglar and not a murderer," exclaimed the
latter. ' 'Why do you treat me this way ?"
"To make more of you." was the reply.
"I believe," remarked the judge, when the prisoner

PAIilS UNYEILEB.

had been removed, "that this fellow who calls himself
Lover and his accomplice, Monsignor, belong to the
Ejangt of criminals belonging to the immense association
of international robbers, who are 'working' the conti-
nent. These are the rascals who break into mail cars

and baggage vans and rob freight trains in transitu "

"Lover is a shrewd and dangerous rogue, and is a
fair representative of his tribe. I do not see how he
can escape a very heavy punishment this time."

CHAPTER VI.

'AMEEICAN STYLE" ROBBERY.

When the Chief of Detectives dropped in next morn-
ing on his sitperior, it was with this astounding infor-
mation:

"Lover has escaped."

"How on earth did he manage it ?"

"By means of an order of transfer, on which a clever
forger had counterfeited the signature of the Judge of
Instruction as well as the seal of the Court. The time
he took in making his admissions enabled his confed-
erates to set all their criminal machinery going to get
him out of trouble."

"Is there any clue of any sort or kind to the forger ?"

"The very slightest. As I told you, the criminal
classes nowadays are wonderfully well organized— for-
gers, robbers and chloroformists. I am morally cer
tain that this is the same gang which forged the check
for 40,000 francs which was cashed three days ago by a
bank on the Rue Saint Honore.

"Is the house on the Rue Boulainotheis under
watch ?"

"Yesl Our female agent, Gloria, has taken board
with the iahitress."

"I am much mortified by the rascal's escape— but I
hope to see him again next Monday, when I pay my
official visit to the Mazas Prison."

"It is understood, I believe, that we are going the
rounds of vicious Paris again this evening, and, in con-
sequence, I am at your service. I am merely waiting
for my private secretary. When he arrives we will
start. I am particularly anxious to become well posted
on the several varieties of robbery which are called
'American style,' 'the give-up,' and 'the chloroform
dodge.' "

"So far as the 'American style' is concerned, the
newspapers have exposed it over and over again, and
it has become so hackneyed that our reporters invari-
ably wind up a description of one of these robberies
with an expression of their surprise and amazement
that human credulity should be so perpetually fresh
and green.

"The real 'American style' of robbery is not so easy
to work as most people believe. It requires the com-
plicity of at least three operators. The first of these,
in America, is called the 'capper.' It is his business to
find a victim who carries plenty of ready money which
is easy of access. Such a customer he carefully watches
and cultivates.

"The second operator plays the part of a foreign
traveler. He is, according to circumstances, an
American, a Spaniard or a German. He must have
rather a distinguished appearance, dresses appropri-
ately and carries a satchel and a pair of field glasses
slung over his shoulders.

"The third actor says nothing— but does the business.
He is called the 'worker.'

"The bogus foreigner begins by following the 'cap-
per ' while he picks up a victim. He then comes up to

him just as he has made fast to the ' sucker.'

" When the ' sucker ' and the ' capper ' are engaged in
earnest conversation, the bogus tourist accosts the
'capper' with a polite bow, and asks him, in broken
French, to direct him to some church, which he men-
tions, and which is a great distance off. He explains
that one of his friends has entrusted to him a letter
containing a large sum of money, which is intended
for the priest of that church.

"The 'capper' describes, with great volubility, the
various neighborhoods and streets which he will have
to traverse to reach the church which he aaks for.

" The bogus traveler pretends not to understand the
directions, and winds up by bringing a foreign gold
piece out of his vest pocket which he oifers to the ' cap-
per' as an inducement to personally show him the
road.

"The latter hesitates for a moment or two, then
accepts and urges the 'victim' to make one of the
party and come along, agreeing to divide the ' tip ' with
him, as well as make the foreigner 'put up' more
money for refreshments, etc.

" They accordingly set out, and before very long the
bogus traveler informs the 'capper' that he has just
arrived in Paris, and that his satchel contains a num-
ber of English gold pieces which he wants to change
into French currency with as little loss as possible. He
has a fear of being swindled by the regular money
brokers, who are not often honest in dealing with for-
eigners.

'"Why, here is yotir chancel' cries the 'capper,'
nudging his victim. ' This gentleman here has a lot of
bank bills which he won't mind changing for specie-
provided, of course, that he makes some discount off
you.'

"And the honest fellow tips the 'sucker' a wink, as
much as to say, 'I'll see your profit is big enough on
the transaction.'

"To inspire confidence, the bogus tourist takes five
or six rolls of specie out of his valise. At either end
the 'sucker' distinctly sees a gold coin.

"The exchange takes place in a cafe with two en-
trances. On some exciise or another both the opera-
tors step out, leaving the victim alone. When he be-
comes suspicious and opens the roll he finds, indeed,
that they have a coin at either end— but the bulk of
them is made of lead pipe.

"It is an old trick, and the only novelty is in the ap-
plication of it. There are various ways of putting it
into execution. Sometimes the 'capper' offers to con-
duct the 'victim' and the bogus traveler into a house of
ill-fame, not far from the fortifications. Before doing
so, he suggests that it woiild be very dangerous to take
any considerable siim of money into siich a place. So
he recommends them to deposit with a responsible
landlord, all their valualiles to be kept in his safe.

"The 'capper' and the bogus traveler join the 'suci'

24

PARI Pi UNVEILED.

er' in this priideut step. By and bj', when they are all
flown with wine and excitement, the bogus f oreignei'
suggests that the 'sucker' shall go and get their purses.
Tickled bj' such a proof of confidence he hurries round
to the place of deposit, only to find that tlie 'worker'
has preceded him with the landlord's receipt and dis-
appeared with all the valuables. He rushes roimd to
the house of ill-fame to tell his new found friends,
and is petrified to find that they, too, have vanished.

"As you may perceive, patience is a 'capper's' sov
ereign virtue. He often spends an entire week hunting
his game without any result whatever.

"The real 'American style,' as I said before, is not so
easy as most people imagine.

"Its execution is only undertaken by the very first-
class crooks.

"The fellows engaged in it are the very flower of the
ci'iminals of all nationalities. It is an immense organi-
zation, and its operations are usually conducted on a
gigantic scale, with great daring and skill.

"The first-class operators of 'the American style'
hang round the great railroad stations and make a
business of laying for the simple people who are re-
turning to the countrj' to end their days in comfort on
the small fortunes they have accumulated with great
thrift and toil.

"So thorough is the organization of these rogues that
the principal members restrict themselves to constant-
ly crossing between America and Europe. They are
thus enabled to become acquainted with the passen-
gers on board the steamers, and deliberately select
their victims.

"Usually they take leave of the victims on the boat.
A cipher dispatch is forwarded to the 'workers,' in
which are full descriptions and particulars.

"These latter ar» so precise and so accurate that
sometimes a mere exchange of satchels suffices. When
the victim arrive.s at his destination and unpacks his
money-bag he finds it f uU of pebbles and other rub-
bish.

"As soon as the victim who has been described lands
from the steamer or the railroad train, he sees ap-
proaching him, according to his own nationality, an
Italian, an Englishman, a German or a Frenchman who
sets out to gain his confidence. He wears a costume
similar to that of the victim and introduces himself as
a fellow-coimtryman.

"The principle involved in this sort of robbery is
confidence. Everything depends on that. Tlie guide
who offers himself to the traveler leaves nothing un-
done to gain it. He gives out that he is a rich man,
very kind hearted and anxious to be of service to his
countrj'man. He speaks to him, in his native language,
of his country, his village, his family and otherwise
plays upon the sensibilities on which the cipher des-

patch has posted him.

"The Tmfortunate 'sucker,' delighted with sucli un-
looked-for good fortune, is convinced that he has in-
deed fovind a fellow-countryman— one who is almost
a brother. He tells him everything, his past as well as
his future hopes and prospects.

"If a police officer were, at this stage, to interrupt
the little game and warn the victim, the chances are
that he would take his trouble for nothing.

"To account for their being on hand, the 'operators'
declare that they are on their way to collect a legacJ^
Legal processes and settlements are long and tedious
and they have to be patient. Thus, bit by bit, they win
the entire confidence of their victims.

"The poor devil, thus taken in tow, partially yields
absolutely to the influence and suggestions of his new
found friend.

"The latter deluges him with good advice.

" ' Look out for thieves in Paris,' he says over and
over again. ' The town is full of rascals— fellows who
keep an eye on you and who are bound to get your
money somehow or anyhow. If they succeed, it is all
up with you. Sometimes the police make an arrest or
two— but they never recover a single sou of the
plunder. Take my advice as that of a man who is not
only a compatriot, but who knows a thing or two. In
fact it wouldn't be a bad idea to let me take charge of
your cash and defray your expenses until you are
settled.'

"The 'sucker' is visibly impressed by the friendli-
ness and goodfellowBhip as well as by the experience
of the cunning ' operator "

"The latter continues:

" 'You see I have had to paj' for my knowledge, and 1
defy any thief to get tlie better of me.'

"In due time the victim hands his valuables over to
the thief. That evening the latter hands his dupe
twenty francs to buy some good cigars with. The
'sucker' steps into a shop to execute the commission.
When he emerges his benefactor has vanished.

"In this business the Italian operator takes the very
first place. He is naturally endowed with gracious and
prepossessing manners, and is wonderfully serious and
impertm-bable. He possesses every quality that makes
an ideal operator, and is as full of intrigue and diplo-
macy as any Oriental.

"Tlie tactics of these fellows is superb. They take
in an entire street and both sides of it when they are
'working,' so as not only to keep an eye on the 'sucker,'
but to watch the police.

"Every gesture of their confederates is a signal which
tliey immediately understand and act upon. It takes
officers of I'are skill and knowledge to keep abreast of
these dangerous and subtle scoundrels,

PARIS UN VEILED.

CHAPTER VII.

THE "GIVE-UP" STYLE.

"The three most active varieties of thief are the pick-
pocket, the American-style confidence operator and the
'give-up' crook. Each has his own way of working and
bis own rules and Systems.

"I have special detectives for each class of "crook,"
and they have plenty of work on hand usually.

"The 'give-up' thieves are divided into two classes,
whose manners and customs are diametrically opposed.

" The first is the least dangerous, but it expends its
strength in the enjoyment of an impunity which is al-
most guaranteed to it by the kind of life it leads. It is
made up of Bohemians.

" France, like all other civilized countries, has been
oveiTun for centuries by men who are in constant re-
bellion against the regulations of society, who revel in
idleness and look forward exclusively to enjoying
themselves at other people's expense. They have an
actual horror of any regular occupation or toil.

"They are easily identified by their strongly marked
features and their dark complexions.

"Belonging to no nationality in particular, they hate
all \vith equal ferocity, and pass their existence defy-
ing the laws of every well-govei-ned people under the
sun. These fellows speak a jargon, utterly unlike any
known langiiage, the words of which are generally
long-drawn and uncouth, or soft and agreeable, ac
cording to circumstances. It is a sort of gipsy dialect
invented by themselves, which is as full of business
meaning as a commercial cipher code.

"They inhabit the vehicles called 'caravans' which
are often seen in the neighborhood of the fortifications
and where the sexes commingle in the most brutal and
disgusting promiscuity.

"Their existence, in these locomotive dens, is that of
the fox. Indeed, they seem to select that wily animal
as their model, and imitate him with unconscious
fidelity.

" Prof essing a great scorn and contempt for honest
and serious work, they possess, all the same, in the
highest degree, a spirit of forethought. They are,
comparatively speaking, sober and frugal.

"These Bohemians, who call themselves Ramonittch-
els. practice various professions, which are always of a
wandering and irregular nature. They are peddlers,
fortune-tellers, wild-beast tamers.

"They are much given to arson and incendiarism, if
such crimes are necessary to carry out their plans of
robbery. But they seldom have enough courage to
commit murder.

"The men are principally addicted to stealing ani-
mals and poultry. Their chickens and their horses are
ill-gotten, as a rule.

"The children, wi-etchedly clothed, without shoes or
stockings, peddle wicker-baskets.

"The women all practice the "give up' game, which
consists in inducing an innocent victim to put down a
piece of money for some object, the article and the
cash both disappearing like a miracle.

"Some of them, the more skillful especially, have
other tricks. Knowing by experience the stupidity and
credulity of the peasant women, they tell them that
they (the gipsies) have second sight, and that their
purses contain false money. The peasants, frightened
out of their lives, at once reveal their purses and their
contents, upon which the theives pronounce all for-
eign coins to be counterfeits, and promptly confiscate
them with an air of benevolence.

"The second class of these rogues is the more for-
midable. It is made up of gamblers, touts and black-
legs generally. Their specialty is the getting
of a storekeeper to change a banknote of considerable
amovmt. The moment the change is made the operator
dashes off with it and with the banknote as well,

"In every instance the operator either hires or owns
a fast horse and a light trap in which he easily evades
pursuit. Of course it is in provincial towns that these
rascals achieve their greatest success.

"Another trick is worked in couples. While one
thief bargains with some storekeeper for an article, at
a given signal another enters and distracts the mer-
chant's attention. In an instant some valuable dis-
appears."

26

PA HIS UNVEILED.

•'Before familiarizing you with the tricks and devices
used by the chloroformists, you must permit me,
Monsieur the Prefect, to benin with a story of which
a very prominent and well-known financier is the
hero.

"It is related to the subject which you are so anxious
to know all about.

"This money-making speculator, who was of German
origin and the owner of a large fortune, made rather
questionably on the Stock Exchange, was a prisoner in
Mazas.

"He was convicted, in spite of his nationality or the
help of several political friends who would not care to
see their names dragged through the mud and mire of
criminal proceedings. He had been, at various times,
closely connected with men who would make any and
every effort to save him rather than be involved by
name in his ruin and disgrace.

"The Attorney-General was deaf to all pleas and in-
tercessions, however, and several eager offers of bail
were firmly but politely declined.

"What made the authorities all the more implacable
was that a well-connected rogue of the same sort and
class had been treated with great indulgence, and had
made up for it by a sudden and mysterious disappear-
ance. Strict orders, therefore, were given to the police
officers who had him in charge and who, every morn-
ing at 10 o'clock, conducted him to the oSice of the ex-
perts who were charged with examining his books.

"One privilege, however, had not been withdrawn
from him. He was allowed to lunch every noon, at his
own expense, in the office of -the experts.

"A waiter brought him, daily, a hamper of provi-
sions in such great abundance that they would have
sufficed for several persons. In full view of the offi-
cers, the culprit absorbed, in one order, a lobster, a
chicken, some Perigord pie, cheese and fruit, the re-
past being irrigated by some fine white wine.

"The officers hiirriedly devoured, meanwhile, some
bread and cheese, with a few figs or other fruit for
dessert.

" 'Try some of this Strasburg pate or a chicken wing.
You mvist have quite an appetite watching me eat.'

"The Prefect had established a rule that none of his
subordinates should accept even the very slightest
favor or gratuity from a prisoner, so the two officers
declined the offer with thanks.

"Every evening between seven and eight, the prison-
er was conducted back to the House of Detention and,
acting under orders, he was always transferred in a
cab, in the custody of the same agents.

"This is how he got the best of them. He always
smoked cigars, expressly imported from Havana, of
the very best brand. The gilt bands on them read:
'Non plus ultra.'

"One night, a hack with doors and window blinds
closed, drew up at the entrance to the Blazas prison.
The driver, seeing nobody alight, descended from his
box, opened the door and of the three passengers with
whom he had started saw only two.

"He shook them soimdlj', for both were fast asleep
and snoring. Being able to do nothing with them he
summoned a policeman, who jumped on the box and
directed him to drive arovind to the police station of
the quarter.

"When the two sleepers awoke they appeared to be
Btupified and confused. The last thing thejf recollected
was that on the Place de la Bastile they had been seized
with very strange and disagreeable symptoms, which
ended in vertigo and unconsciousness. Contrary to
their general practice each had accepted a cigar from
the prisoner— and the cigars were drugged."

"Are there many thieves who use narcotics ?"

"There are a few, and they must not be confounded
with the chloroformists. They make a specialty of
dealing with the simpletons who are always ready to
drink with anybody whether thej' know him or not.
After being assured that the victim has money on his
person, the operator treats him to a cigar loaded with
opium, or pours into his glass some narcotic drops,
which lull him to sleep and facilitate the work of
robbery.

"Often these fellows operate on bank clerks and
messengers whom they pick up in the saloons near the
big railroad stations. Frequently they lie in wait in
these places, smoking or playing dominoes, but keep-
ing always a bright look-out for 'subjects.'

When a 'sucker' turns up they engage him in a casual
conversation and then propose a little game of some
kind just for the drinks.

" The ' sucker ' wins at first, and is naturally delight-
ed. Little by little his sensations of pleasure begin to
diminish. His motor nerves perform their functions
badly and irregularly. A general sensation of confu-
sion and discomfort pervades him. He can't explain
his feelings, but he begins to lose control of himself.
In due time he loses his faculties. He drops his cards
and sinks into an uneasy but profound slumber, from
which he wakes to find himself minus his watch and
money, in the presence of a landlord who is angrily
demanding payment for the drinks.

"The victim of such a process is always very sick, in
consequence. Biit the 'dose' is never fatal— some-
thing which cannot be said of the administration of
chloroform by crooks.

'Some surgeons declare that it is very difficult—
almost impossible— to administer chloroform to an tin-
conscious sleeping individual. Others affirm that it is
quite easy. On this score the chloroformists coiild give
both a good deal of enlightenment and information.
For they employ it with great skill, sometimes using a
sponge, and sometimes administering it on a pocket
handkerchief.

" As everybody knows, chloroform when used reck-
lessly, is a ver3' dangerous drug, and often has the
most deplorable consequences.

"These chloroformists are most skillful and auda-
cious. You meet them on railroads, on steamships, in
hotels. Essentially cosmopolitan, they spend the
greater portion of their lives travelling. They are as
full of geographical information as a guide-book, and
they know every watering-place and health resort pa-
tronized by millionaires and persons of means.

"The chloroformist is usually a 'spoiled' medical
student who has taken a course, either in whole or in
part, at the Schools, where he has learned how to use
narcotics.

"A man of the world, full of information and good
humor, his conversation is usually very agreeable, and
he speaks two or three languages with fluency and
grace, generally of a most prepossessing exterior.
When he deals with women he usually figures as a rich
bachelor with matrimonial designs. He is especially
sueccBsf ul with wealthy and vulgar 'mamas'— for he
takes extra pains to ingratiate himself with that class.
"When traveling or 'working' on a railroad, this is
how he operates:

"He first 'places' a pocketbook. That is to say, he
hangs round a railroad station until he sees and selects
a particularly well-lined purse. When he has made
his choice he buys a ticket for the same destination as
his victim. In his satchel he carries a supply of eat-
ables and cigars, and above all, of some excellent
liquor. Often a pack of cards makes up his outfit.

THE BUKGLAB 11^ THE CONVENT.

PABIS UNVEILED.

"He gets into the same compartment with his victim
and dexterously engages him in conversation. When
a third of the trip is traversed he cleverly leads the
discussion to a denunciation of the stop-over eating
saloon, makes fun of the viands and protests that he
can't for the life of him endure the bustle and hurry
of lunching under such conditions. The next step,
and the most natural in the world, is to offer his fel-
low traveler a share of his own dainty provisions.

"In case of refusal, when his repast is finished, he
politely offers the victim a drugged cigar or a 'dosed'
glass of liq.uor.

"The conversation is sustained— but grows tiresome.
The rumble of the train swells into an ominous roar.
Iff an incredibly short space of time the luckless
■sucker' drops into a heavj^ lethargy. The chloro-
formist at once uncorks his little phial and keeps it for
some seconds under the nose of the sleeper. At the
same time he gently applies a leaf of the thinnest pos-
sible parchment over his mouth to keep him from in-
haling atmospheric and unvitiated air.

"This parchment is called 'a stifler,' and is made like
the bottom of a carnival mask.

"Thus secured, the thief goes to work with speed,
yet deliberation. He opens the coveted pocketbook
and quickly empties it of all save one or two small bank
notes. He replaces it in the pocket where he found it,
and disdains to appropriate the jewelry on his
'subject's' person.

■'At the next station he alights and disappears.

"Of course he spares his victim's jewelry because it
might give a clew to him and cause his arrest.
He has another motive for always leaving
a little money in the pocketbook. It is this: The 'vic-
tim' finding some money left, decides that he was not
robbed but must have been cheated in making change,
or must have dropped some of his wealth. Another
and graver motive for leaving some money in the
pocketbook is this:

"Suppose the 'dose' were to prove fatal. The author-
ities on examining the corpse and finding money and
jewelry on it. would never suspect that a robbery had
been perpetrated.

"It may have been a singular coincidence, and it
maj' have been something else, but recently on a single
railroad, at the same hour and the same place, three
mysterious unknown corpses were found, two of them
in the same compartment.

"On steamers, the chloroformist uses all his tricks
and devices. Life on board is dull and monotonous.
Time hangs heavy and has to be killed. Everybody
gets stupid and drowsy and falls asleep watching the
sky and waves.

"An agreeable and vivacious conversationalist has
everything his own way. It must be remembered that
most ocean travelers are very uninteresting people.

"The chloroformist usually passes himself off as a
doctor, knowing that women have a special weakness
for medical men. If the weather turns out rough, he
is full of suggestions and prescriptions. What, for
instance is to be compared with a nice fresh egg,
beaten up in a little Madeira ? Father, mother— the en-
tire family regards him with admiration and gratitude.

"Xbe egg^ji.d Madeira prescription gives his othej

fellow passengers confidence in him. How easy then,
to 'dose' some rich planter or American traveler.

"When they land, he freezes on to his real victim,
whom he usually invites to dine wit^ him in a com-
fortable restaurant where they can get a private room.
The private room is close and stuffy and the window
is opened to give them air. The dinner is finished and
the waiter has gone to fetch the coffee and liqueurs.
The thief seizes his opportunity and invites his friend
to get a breath of fresh air at the open window. The
cofl'ee is served meanwhile. Then the 'operator' calls
the attention of his guest to some girl passing by.
When his attention is diverted, the 'dose' drops merci-
lessly into the victim's coffee cup. Then the victim
drinks— and falls asleep. As if everybody doesn't fall
asleep after a good dinner ?

"I have a cousin who was the secretary and treasurer
of a large industrial and commercial company which
had its headquarters in Bordeaux. He visited Paris
three or four times every year. Being a man of regu-
lar habits, on each occasion he went to the same hotel,
which is one of the best appointed and most exclusive
In town.

"On his last visit, he put up at this house. That af-
ternoon he had drawn from his bank, in cash, the sum
of 50,000 francs ($10,000). As he was obliged to leave
very early in the morning, contrary to his usual habit,
he forbore to deposit his money in the hotel safe.

" He went to bed at nine o'clock. He put his clothing
on an easy chair after making sure of the presence, in
one of his pockets, of the 50,000 francs, done up in tha
identical parcel he had drawn from the bank.

" My cousin, for twenty years, always and invariably
woke every morning at four o'clock. It was an abso-
lutely ineradicable habit with him.

" At nine o'clock next morning he was still asleep.
By and by he opened his eyes, vaguely conscious of
having heard unusual sounds in his sleep.

" His instant reflection was 'I have been robbed.'

" A hasty glance confirmed the suspicion. The
drawer of the dressing case, instead of being in its
usual place, was at the other end of the room, in an
easy chair. In it were his key, his watch and a certain
amount of money.

" Bounding across the room he wildly opened the
pocket of his coat. The .package was still there, but
its seal had been broken, and, instead of his 50,000
francs it contained a supplement of Figaro.

" He notified the police instantly, and a most vigor-
ous search was made. The landlord of the hotel took
extra trouble to try and get some light on the robbery.
So far as his employees were concerned they seemed
to be beyond all suspicion.

■'He had, beyond all doubt, been followed and ,
shadowed, and, through his negligence in omitting to
shoot the bolt of the door, entrance had been easily
effected with a false key.

" My cousin said that on waking he felt a peculiar
and most disagreeable sensation in the joints of his up-
per jaw and a horrible tickling or pricking in his nose.
His expression was vacant and wandering and it was
all he could do to carry his head straight.

"During the whole of the next day he was inces-
santly struggling with a desire to go to sleep,

PARIS UNVEILED.

CHAPTER Vin.

CHLOEOFOKHnSTS AND SHOPLITTEES.

"Mr. WilliamBon, the Chief of Police of public bp-
curity in London, arrived in Paris the other day in
search of a very dangerous Dritch criminal, who was
interrupted in the very act of committing a robbery in
a hotel close by Charing Cross railroad station.

" When the victim was first seen, laid out on abed,
pale and motionless, she was taken for dead. She was,
however, merely in a heavily drugged shimber.

"The thief in getting out of the window, had been so
pressed that he had left his hat behind him, in the
crown of which he had fixed with a light elastic loop
a small flask or phial of black glass, which had con-
tained chloroform.

"Between the bed and the table BIr. Williamson
picked up a sponge, shaped something like a mush-
room, in the hollow of which lingered the character-
iBtic etherial vapor of chloroform.

"It came out in our inquiries that the robber's sister
had been once employed in the English hotel, and that
Blie was, afterwards, a servant in that in which my
cousin was drugged in Paris.

"Unfortunately we could find no cluo to the where-
abouts of either of them.

"I had occasion once to converse with a forger, who
was in a prison hospital, and who was acquainted with
some very well-known chloroformiets.

"The first question he asked me was, 'Did they leave
your cousin any money and his jewehy.' When I re-
plied in the afiirmative, he said, 'Just bo. That's their
regular way of doing business. Kegular habits are
fatal blunders on the part of crooks.

" 'Cliloroformists are artists out and out. I have
seen them at work and known them intimately for
fifteen years and I have never known one to get
pinched.'

" 'Aren't you exaggerating?' I said.

" 'Not a bit,' he responded, and he told me the fol-
lowing:

" 'Wlien Hived in Chicago there X^'as a good deal of
talk about a gang of chloroformists, who held an an-
nual meeting at which new sets of grips and pass
words and other signals were decided upon. The em-
blem of tlie gang was a trinket, a ring, a breastpin, the
handle of a cane or of an umbrella— something easy to
show and see. Correspondence between the members
of the gang was always signed bj' three initials and
double numbers— for instance: B. K. V.— 19.22.'

"The chloroformists conceal with the greatest care
everything likely to betray tlieir identity or their occu-
pation. The moment they are arrested they bend
every energy to destroy the tell-tale phial of chloro-
form which the.v carry.

•'The principal French cities in which they carry on
business are Havre, Dunkerque, Eouen, Bordeaux and
Marseilles.

"It is an iinpromising sign that women of the town
have taken to practising the chloroforua racket. The
other day two prostitutes were taken dead to riglits
committing a robbery in the Hotel Splendide. On both

of them were found small phials of black glass full of
i chloroform.

"They were passing for two young sisters jttst ar-
rived from the country to stop over night in Paris.

"The black glass phials proved that they were in in-
timate relation with persons having special acquaint-
ance with drugs and the handling of them. W^omen,
as a rule, do not know without being told that air and
light have a damaging influence on chloroform.

"The use of narcotic poisons has a moat confusing
effect on all judicial magistrates. In the first place, the
victim does not know whether he has been in a natural
or a drugged sleep. The idea does not occur to him.
and instead of being closely questioned by judges
with a proper theory, many an important clew is al-
lowed to go bj^ default.

"In case of a death from narcotic poisoning caused
by a chloroformist, if it has taken place at a hotel,
there is very naturally a strong desire on the part of
all concerned to gloss the affair over. An autopsy is
scarcely ever made. If it were made some very curi-
ous disclosures might ensue.

"The tribe of thieves and assassins does not diminish.
On the contrary, it is always increasing and constantly
multiplying its various methods of doing business.

"Rooberies with violence and commonplace bur-
glaries will, in due time, disappear, and a more highly
cultivated and skillful school of scoundrels is fast
being spread over the world at large.

"For instance, it is only recently that murders and
thefts of moving railroad trains have become common.

"They used to be quite rare.

"To be robbed or murdered while traveling used to
be regarded as a fantastic and romantic thing, barely
possible, whereas, in our day, both crimes are fre-
quently committed.

"The great shops of Paris, some thirty in number, are
always well patronized by high and low crooks. ThcKe
immense places, built and conducted like markets,
are so many ant-hills, swarming with clerks and cus-
tomers. They are constantly robbed b.v the staff of
employees and by the people who come there pre-
tending to do some shopping. Once a month there is
a bargain sale in most of them, which are den8el,v
thronged by women, idlers and the silly, mentally in-
firm creatures who are in search of amorous intrigues.
These crowds afford excellent opportunities to the in-
dustrious army of thieves.

"In the case of shoplifters, a woman penetrating to
the centre of one of these vast establishments is im-
mediately surrounded by every variety of temptation
and seduction. A dangerous influence permeates and
controls her. If she hesitates, she is, indeed, lost. It
is not only her pocketbook which is imperilled. Too
often her character and the fair fame of her family
are at stake.

"On every ground I object to the immense bazaar of
the present day. They confront the weaker sex with
every form of ee4uotioii> ^eiuptation and comnotion.

NABBED BY FEBIALE PICKPOCKETS.

PARIS UNVEILED.

29

Vastly to be preferred were the modest shops of ancient
days where women sought what they really wanted,
and were not cajoled into acquiring, no matter how,
what they actually did not need.

"It is an ominous and most significant fact that
during the past five years no less than one hundred
and tifty robberies have occurred every day in the
thirty principal stores of Paris. That makes a daily
average of five robberies in each store, and as only the
gravest and most serious are reported, you can form
an idea of the tremendous dishonesty rife in these
mammoth establishments.

" It has been proved by official research that the de-
tective police and the special officers employed by the
stores only discover one-fourth of the depredations
committed in them.

"In order to avoid all danger of false imprisonment,
an arrest is only made when the prisoner has been
seen to commit two robberies running. The detective
police operate only on the sidewalks and the edges of
the crowd. Within the building, the special officers, who
are usually retired policemen, have exclusive charge.

"When a regular detective makes an arrest he has to
conduct his prisoner immediately before a commis-
sary of police. When the capture is made by one of
the special officers of the establishment, he rings an
electric bell, which at once convenes the directorate
of the store, before whom the prisoner is brottght.

"The directorate acts upon the case without any
delay or hesitation. If the prisoner confesses the
theft, proves her identity and signs an obligation to
indemnify the administration of the store, she is
searched both personally and as to her residence
without recourse being had to the regular police.

"When her house is searched, all new goods are piti-
lessly confiscated.

"Then the culprit is compelled to pay over a certain
sum of money, which is determined by her wealth and
social condition, to a fund devoted to the poor. This
fine ranges from 100 to 10,000 francs.

"On the other hand, if the culprit makes no con-
fession and persists in densring the charge, she is
handed over to the regular police.

"The number of persons afflicted with kleptomania
is beyond all belief. Put down those who reside in the
department of the Seine alone at 100,000 and you will
considerably fall short of the truth. Every class is
represented.

"In the case of women, impunity gives them assur-
ance. For every single thief who steals un-
der the stress of necessity, you will find a
hundred who suffer no need whatever. We
arrest one workingwoman for every hundred so-
ciety ladies, and, in almost every instance, we arrest
the workingwoman at Christmas time for stealing
some little toy for her baby. It is true, of course, that
the workingwoman has less time to be dishonest, and
has fewer temptations. Servants out of place commit
numeroiis thefts. But where we arrest ten domestics,
we capture a hundred governesses, who, curiously
enough, are especially addicted to stealing gloves.

"You would be petrified to see the records of the
Grand Bazaar, in which are carefully registered the
names and addresses of women of good family and
high social standing who have been compelled to tear-
fully enroll their confessions among those of prosti-
tutes and professional shoplifters I In the case of the
latter, the records include a photograph of the thief.

CHAPTER IX.

SHOPLIFTEES.— (Continued).

"One of the strangest things about shoplifting is that
many of its professors are in a sense monomaniacs
who go in for 'collecting' one special line of articles.
One accumulates nut-crackers, another corkscrews, a
third cuffs and collars, a fourth pepper-casters, a fifth
spirit lamps, and so on. Very frequently the klepto-
maniacs have no earthly use for the goods they steal.

"Poverty is seldom pleaded as an excuse, and the
woman who is addicted to shoplifting is. as a rule, a
gay and festive creature who enjoys life to the utter-
most. Only one woman in a thousand steals a garment
for her child.

"Just as most public men yearn to be the owners of
decorations, most fashionable women crave laces,
silks and diamonds. If they are homely they want to
be attractive, and if they are pretty they want to have
their charms expressed in the height of fashion. It is
a law of feminine existence. Poor or rich, they are all
equally possessed by the same cupidity.

"Stores in which novelties are sold are a paradise for
these women. The attractions they see on everj' side
are absolutely irresistible, and they make no effort to
restrain themselves.

"The woman who steals deliberately and with calcu-
lation is not a kleptomaniac— she is, simpl.v, a thief.

"Fashionable milliners, game-dealers and confec-
tioners are well up in the way of this class of ciistomer.

They provide a remedy by posting one of the clerks at
the door, who asks the lady as she goes out whether
she hasn't forgotten something. In this delicate way
the price of a missing box of candies or some other
trifle is usiially recovered.

"There is a certain Madame de F.— a lady of the high-
est society— whose pilferings are all known to the
police. Eight days ago she 'collared' a pate, defoie gran,
worth 40 francs ($8), in a store where she had just paid
a very large bill.

"It seemed a terrible thing to suspect so prominent
a lady— in whose drawing rooms the leaders of Parisian
society constantly commingle.

"She has horses and carriages. Her husband occu-
pies a distinguished position and is universally re-
spected and esteemed. She is rery rich and far above
the seductions of coquetry and the pressure of need.

"It was, however, by no means the first time she
yielded to temptation, and a good many dealers in
delicacies are well acquainted with her 'weakness.' "

"It is the fashion, nowadays, to plead insanity as a
defence for almost every variety of crime, and the
most recent outcome of this theory is the statement
that pregnancy, which works certain mental changes
in some women, must be considered a mitigating cir-
cumstance.

"For example, the other day there occurred a curi-

30

PARIS UNVEILED.

ous lUuBtration of this, The widow of an engineer of
the department of canals and bridges met with what
Sairah Bernhardt calls 'a little accident' two years after
the death of her husband. Unable any longer to con-
ceal the consequences of her error, she made some
excuse or another and came to Paris in search of a
midwife.

"Caught in the act of pilfering fronj a big dry goods
store, she was arrested and searched. About twenty
articles of the most trifling value were taken from her.
They were discovered in her lodgings, piled in great
disorder in the bottom of a wardrobe.

"Now, this woman was most cleai'l.v irresponsible.
She had come to Paris to escape the results of a mis-
step, and she committed others much less natural,
not in any degree excusable, and which, under jiidicial
prosecution, would entail the greatest and vilest dis-
grace on herself and family.

"The double offense was more than she could stand
charged with— and she comniitted suicide.

"I once saw a pickpocket sixty-seven years of age,
acquitted in a police coui-t on the preposterous plea
that when she was in an interesting condition she was
not responsiole for her acts.

"Pei'haps the credit given to this extraordinary ex-
cuse in behalf of a woman sixty-seven j^ears old, was
due to the fact that she had retained, with a fee of
3,000f rancs ($600), one of the leaders of the Paris bar.

"In every instance "kleptomania" shows itself to the
greatest advantage in the big stores. It has grown so
common and so general that it really seems to be con-
tagious. If we go on excusing it and treating it as a
mental infirmity instead of a criminal habit, we shall
have to establish separate asylums for victims of the
malady.

"We are now in one of the largest establishments in
Paris. Look down from this gallery, if j'ou please, on
that seething, jostling, elbowing tide of humanity of
which heads form the waves.

"You will notice that the male sex is altogether in
the minority.

"Watch that man, carelessly dressed and negligent
of his appearance, with the polka-dotted necktie. He
is quite alone. What is he in search of,? The air round
him is charged with womanliness, if I may coin an
expi'ession. He is borne hither and thither like a cork
on a stream. Something gets in the way of the moving
mass of women. They stop for an instant. The man
makes prodigious efforts to free himself from contact
■with the crowd. He succeeds. The way is made
clear for him. But it is evidently not liberty
of which he is in search. In ])lace of profit-
ing by his escapo from the crowd, he plunges
into it once more. See the smile of balmy content-
ment with which he resigns himself to being buffeted
and jostled and borne this way and that way by the
pressure of women. Watch him, with open nostrils,
drinking in the odor of the femininity in which he is
enveloped.

" He is an erotic crank. He delights in the accidental
and thoughless contacts of the moment as a fish de-
lights in its native element.

" Such a monomaniac was Monsietir X., whose arrest
must stUl be fresh in your mind.

" These erotic cranks who revel in imperceptible
contact with women, itnder the cover of which they
occasionally take liberties, are astonishingly numerous.
There are as many of them as there are pickijockets,
and one class is often mistaken for the other.

" It is not an easy subject to treat or discuss. Medical
men, I believe, have classified it.

"Every day in some of the big stores of Paris j-oung
and pretty women complain of the gross and indecent
familiarities to which they are subjected in a crowd by
men who are apparently respectable gentlemen. Most
of them are between forty and fifty years of age. They
dress plainly and in many instances their apparel is
faded and threadbare. They attract no attention by
their appearance, and are most systematic in the per-
formances of which they are guilty.

"There is still another class whom we call 'destruc-
tive cranks." These monomaniacs love to carry scissors
and cut pieces off the clothing of the women they en-
counter. A good many of them make collections of
the snippings they accumulate. To each they pin a
card on which you may read the date, the name of the
store and a brief sketch of the woman thus despoiled.

"You have no idea of the damage caused by 'destruc-
tive cranks.' They prefer, as a rule, establishments
frequented by the most richly dressed women in Paris.

"Next to 'destructive cranks' come, in importance,
the 'hair-cutters.' I know half a dozen of these fel-
lows who devote themselves to cutting off the braids of
young girls about ten or twelve years old. The ex-
cuses they offer when arrested are evidently mere
lunatic special pleading.

" 'I can't help it. It is an irresistible mania with me.
I never think of the child herself . It is her beautiful
hair which attracts me and makes me commit the
follj'. I see it— and I mast possess it.'

"Besides these 'cranks' I have on my list the collec-
tors of handkerchiefs. The professional thief scorns a
handkerchief and goes every time for the pocketbook.
On the other hand, the amateur 'crank' disdains the
pocketbook and aims for the handkerchief.

"Stealing handkerchiefs from young women is a
regular business. At the last universal exposition, a
tailor, after three successive arrests, was sentenced
to six months' imprisonment. His first two captures
did not have any reformatory influence on him. In his
room were found no less than three hundred hand-
kerchiefs embroidered with various initials.

"When one of these fellows 'snatches' a handker-
chief he passes it to his lips and revels in the perfume
just as a drunkard revels in the odor of liquor.

"It is a curious fact that the women who are thus ill-
treated are, as a rule, very loth to make any complaints.
It is, of course, very dif&cult for a decent and respect-
able female to distinguish between accidental contact
with people in a crowd and the insulting demonstra-
tions of erotic cranks. When there is no mistaking the
nature of the familiarities which are inflicted on them,
they blush and get out of the way as fast as possible,
rather than occasion scandal by making a scene.

"I am sorry to say that while this is the rule with the
majority of women, there are a few who rather like to
be insulted, and who frequent the stores with the hope
that some man will be rude enough to ill-behave.

Just at this moment the electric bell sounded,

"I know what that means. The Countess de B. has,
as usual, filched something from the notion counter.
She has been arrested and will, as a matter of course
and withovit the least resistance, pay 500 francs ($100) to
the charity fund."

"How old is this noble kleptomaniac ? "

"About sixty. She is immensely rich, and nothing
but meanness makes her a thief. We need waste no
sympathy on her.

MANILLA'S BOUDOIE.

PARIS UKVEILED.

CHAPTER X.

COMMERCIAL BOHEMIA.

" We have at last ebcaped into the fresh air out of one
of the infernos which Dante forgot to describe. What
a relief it is to emerge out of that rank and close and
fetid atmosphere.

"Now that we have treated our lungs to the refresh-
ing sensation of out-doors, let iis look around and scan
the scene.

"On every side of us you see the parasites of the
sidewalk— the merchants and hucksters of the gutters.

"There, for instance, is Memeche, whom we last saw
stretched out on the flagstones of the Rue des Nois
Portes. She could not have made a long stay in the
hospital this time, and there she is selling, in curious
contrast to her own reckless and vicious habits, little
memorandum books in which to keep household ac-
counts. As soon as she has made a handful of pennies
by this, off she will go to spend every sou of it with
Old Father Spectacles again.

"All round her are men who sell toy balloons, letter
paper and envelopes, shoe laces, toothpicks, canes and
umbrellas.

"Watch. A policeman orders them to keep moving.
Memeche opens her mouth and shows her teeth at
him. It may be a sign of amiability and it may be a
hint that she would like to bite him.

"A little further along you see fellows who peddle
pomades and soaps and other things of the sort.

"Street criers, hawkers, card and circular distribu-
tors—all look upon the public streets as their private
property.

"Look at that filthy, ragged fellow all in tatters, who
is scratching his back against a friendly lamp post.
He opens his moutjj everj' once in a while to howl out,
'Here you are! The latest big scandal in high life!
Rich, rare and spicy! The fullest particulars!"

"Thus are the youth of both sexes cheaply and easily
kept informed of aU the vice and wickedness rampant
in Paris.

"Oiitside the grammar schools and colleges and
boarding schools you will find these picture dealers
carrying round photographs of actresses in the garb of
Eve, and books and poems, the onlj' characteristic of
which is their incredible obscenity.

• 'One of the principal articles dealt in by these scoun-
drels are transparent cards which, to reveal theirinde-
cencies, must be held up before the light.

"Another part of this neighborhood is taken up by
scoundrels who deal in pinchbeck jewelry and watches,
with the whispered pretence that they are stolen goods
which cannot be sold in stores.

"All these minor rogues form a steadily increasing
host which propogates itself and multiplies like mag-
gots in a carcass. Their tireless industry in wrong-
doing illustrates anew and over and over again the
great maxim of Darwin— 'The struggle for life.'

"The grand army of vice is spread broadcast every-
where and under all conceivable conditions. It is a
rising tide which is constantly mounting higher and
higher, and which will finally engulf us unless we
can discover some means of combatting and suppress-
ing it.

"The first city ordinance levelled at professional va-

grants, vagabonds and outlaws was issued over two
hundred years ago. They were driven out of their old
retreat, the Court of Miracles, which the ancient
chroniclers describe in 1684 as follows:

" 'There were always to be found real or bogus suf-
ferers and cripples showing their wounds and scars
and maimed limbs, beggars plying their trade, thieves
concocting fresh robberies or dividing the plunder of
old ones, and a hideous prostitution which flourished
in broad daylight, to the great shame and dishonor of
the capital of a great kingdom.'

"It is not only near the big stores that you find the
pickets and outposts of the grand army of crime. The
financial quarters of the city swarm with them. The
Stock Exchange is surrounded by flocks of clever
criminals, just as a barrel of sugar is flocked to by mil-
lions of flies.

"The theatres have their own special hangers-on-
peddlers of programmes and carriage-door openers—
who make no bones of seizing your watch or y9ur fan
or your opera glasses, if you don't keep a very bright
look out.

"The ticket speculator is a variety of rascal whom we
have constantly tried to put down, but who survives
the hostile attentions of the police and utterly refuses
to be wiped out of existence.

"In 1875 M. Leon Renault gave strict orders that the
sale of unauthorized tickets by speculators should be
stopped. The hunt for offenders was kept up for ten
days, and at the end of that time the police headquar-
ters prison was full. Some of the culprits had as
much as 500 or 1,000 francs on their persons, which
made it impossible for the authorities to hold them as
vagabonds.

"Then appeared in the Figaro, the Evenement and the
Gaulois, a mosx interesting letter from a theatrical
official. It reads as follows:
" ' Monsieur Prefect:

" 'I have the honor to inform you that the press has
for some time been calling attention to a series of dis-
graceful frauds perpetrated on the sidewalks of
theatres, especially when a play has achieved a marked
success.

"'Every theatre in Paris has two contractors for
tickets. One represents the management and the box-
office ; the other attends to the interests of the author.

"'But, in addition to these regular official ticket
dealers, there is a large number of individuals— men
utterly withoiit character or responsibility — who,
profiting by the credulitj' of the public, sell at extrava-
gant pricesjihe most worthless seats in the house by
misrepresenting their location and quality.

" ' The simplest plan whereby to meet and crush this
despicable robbery, and to raise a new fund for chari-
table purposes, is to imitate England and Germany,
where ticket-sellers are licensed by the authorities,
and correspondingly taxed.

" "Licensed dealers in tickets could employ other per-
sons to actually sell for them, but it should be pro-
vided that when an employee sold tickets he should at
the same time give the customer a card bearing the
pame and number of the licensed dealer in whose ser-

32

PARTS ITNVEILED.

vice he sold, so that any infraction of the law or false
pretence might be traced up and duly punished as in
the case of cabmen.

" 'The annual tax for a license should be 500 to 1,000
francs for one theatre, double the amount for two, and
BO on.

" 'This measure would give the State over 50.000 francs
a year and would regulate trade without creating a
monopoly.

" 'I sincerely hope, Monsieiir Prefect, that you. will
immediately take these suggestions into consideration.
" 'E. Havez.
" 'Chief of the Staff of the Theatre des Varietes.'

"Now that we have arrived at a church, just cast
your eye around and see all the beggars who swarm in
its neighborhood. You observe hunchbacks, blind
men, scarred and ulcerated wretches, and women with
children who look in the last gasps of starvation.

"There may be a very few genuine cases of mis-
fortune among them. But they constitute the min-
ority. The greater number are rascals, male and
female, who devote all their energies to theft and
swindling. They are a crowd of loafers, bummers,
drunkards and other scum.

"In the summer time these vagabonds sleep on the
slopes of the f ortitications and on the banks of the
Beine. In winter they manage to survive the cold by
taking refuge in unfinished houses. During the day
they hang round barrack gates and hotel back en-
trances for food. Early in the afternoon they hunt up
quarters for themselves in the public squares and
parks.

"At nine o'clock this morning, in the garden of the
Louvre, no less than twenty-eight vagabonds were ar-
rested for sprawling on the benches. Among them
were a couple of lunatics from the Bicetre.

"Begging has become an industry and the false beg-
gar is the real thief.

"Our race courses, in addition to the pickpockets,
who are their special and haoitual vermin, have agen-
cies for robbery all their own. The bookmakers form
a large and rascally element. Some of them form a
syndicate which buys up a lot of horses and runs them
in the names of mythical owners— the result of each
race being deliberately planned and arranged before-
band.

"The profits of siich roguery are immense and can be
calculated on every time, for they know in advance the
horse who is going to win.

"At the present moment an investigation is being
made into a case where there is reason to believe that
a well-known and highly-respected stable has let out
its name to cover operations of this kind.

"It is a curioiis thing that want never spurs the real
thief to commit a crime. Children don't begin by
stealing bi-ead or cake. Their first plunder is a knife,
or a cigar-holder or some similar trinket.

"Eatables and drinkables are usually stolen not to
satisfy hunger and thirst, but to gratify gluttony. Men
steal wines and liquors. Women steal confectionery.

"The criminal statistics published each year by the
Ministry of Justice permit us to accurately follow tlie
movement of public morality. The inferences set
forth are simply lamentabj^e, and go to show that ig-
norance is not the parent of crime. The provinces,
which are remarkable for their poverty and lack of
education, are also remarkable for their freedom from
criminals. Robberies are scarcely known, and of the
most trifling character when they do occur.

"It is a contrary rule in the great cities, where educa-
tion is widely diffused and a high order of intelligence
exists.

"In Paris, the intellectual flower of the country, vice
and crime in every phase, form and degree, prosper
and grow, while the police remains stationary. The
development of wickedness and the ingenuity with
which it finds me^ins to express itself are truly ap-
palling.

" Twenty years ago the thieves were men of middle
age, cowardly, shrinking and unskillful. They hid
under cover all day, and only came out to perpetrate
their evil deeds at night.

""To-day there are hundreds of pickpockets— and very
skillful pickpockets— who are not over 12 years of age.
At 15 they become burglars and bank robbers, and at
20 they are ripe for murder.

" The criminals of Paris are no longer afraid of day-
light. They actually prefer to operate in crowded
thoroughfares in the glare of the siin.

"Take the murders of the present period. Observe
how much more frequent as \vell as how much more
scientific they have become.

"Robberies are thought out beforehand with all the
carefulness and calculation of an engineering experi-
ment. And when grand schemes are put into execu-
tion, they are carried out with a thoroughness and a
resolution to which it is hard to deny a kind of admira-
tion.

WORKING THE PICKPOCKET EACKET.

PARIS UNVEILED.

33

CHAPTER XI.

THE BLACK BAND.

"Professional thieves know the establishments where
• they can meet and reside in absolute security and use
them as regular boarding houses.

"Beer saloons, hotels, restaurants— all are regularly
'booted' among the archives and memoranda of trav-
eling crooks. They give each other points and, by
means of conventional signs indicate to each other the
character of these various resorts— distinguishing for
example between places where they can be served with
drinks and those where they can obtain eatables as
well.

"Kefuges of this kind are indicated according to their
Importance and convenience by a light sketch repre-
senting a locomotive, a boat, an omnibus, a street car
or a cab.

"These signs leave nothing to be desired in the way
of exactness. I have seen some which went so far as to
designate the price of drinks.

"The proprietors of siich resorts are well acquainted
with the true character of their customers, whom
they favor in every possible waj^, and conceal by in-
genious subterfuges from the pursuit of the police.

"All these places are constructed with especial ref-
erence for their use by criminals. Among other con-
veniences, they have several means of exit through
which closely-hunted crooks can rapidly and easily
make their escape.

"A Prefect of Police who really wants to keep up
with the movements of criminals in Paris, ought to be
thoroughly advised of what takes place there night
and day. He should be wise enough and shrewd
enough not to trust too implicitly to the information
fiirnished by his agents, and by personal scrutiny and
inspection ought to correct the frequently inaccurate
and therefore useless reports made by his subordi-
nates on the state of the public morals.

"The den, or perhaps I ought to call it the tavern,
which we are just entering is situated not very far
from the opera. It stands near the Rue Faubourg-
Mont Martre, and it serves as an asylum for several
varieties of criminals. Although they know each other
well, they make it a point while stopping here never
to recognize one another.

"The predecessor of the big, handsome blonde fel-
low who sits at the desk was a German from Bei'lin.
He had for a favorite customer, Jane Glay, a wonder-
ftilly beautiful girl of 25 years, with eyes of childish
innocence, who was clever enough in 1874 to escape
from the prison of St. Lazare made up in the disguise
of a Sister of Charity.

"She was one of the most skillful memoers of a gang
of pickpockets, who were under the protection and
control of a fellow, who, under the pretext of render-
ing him political services, became the intimate friend
of the manager of the establishment.

"This band of thieves, well-known as they were in
London, made this place their refuge in exile.

"The political agent, who was arrested and sentenced
with the rest when a raid was made on the gang, died
recently in London in a very mysterious manner.

"This, then, is an important den?" remarked the
Prefect,

" Very important, and one of its most curious fea-
tures is that it is patronized by a Senator and a Dep-
uty."

"That is a very serious statement to make."

" Serious, it is true, but a statement which I ought
to make to you as Prefect of Police, Monsieur. But it
ought not to surprise you, seeing that I have already
pointed out to you a licensed house of ill-fame which
is the property of one of the most prominent function-
aries of the President's ofB.ce."

"Perhaps he inherited it. It is not always easy to
make a change in property when it comes to you in
the shape of a legacy."

' ' Very true. But in this particular instance the heir,
as soon as he got absolute control of the property re-
tained the tenant. At the same time he resolved to cut
down the infamous profits of the latter, so he raised
her rent.

"In this place foreigners always register themselves
as bookmakers, and Frenchmen always put themselves
down as commercial travelers. The habitues, as you
see, without being very swell or distinguished looking,
have a very decent and respectable appearance. They
expend reasonably large amounts on their meals and
refreshments. Just see. While we are content with
a modest filet at the next table they are eating roast
venison."

"Isn't the venison season closed ?"

"Certainly. And it has been closed for some time.
But that doesn't prevent its being served to whoever
orders it in this house. Nearly all the eatables here,
like the cooks and the waiters, are of foreign origin.
One fellow who serves tis is a Swiss. Drop twenty
francs ($4) into his hands and order without the least
hesitation its equivalent in tobacco, cigars, playing
cards or matches— all smuggled— and as you make your
exit the contraband goods you purchase will be
dropped into your pocket or slipped under'your arm."

"Do they ever get caught ?"

"Frequently; but they pay their fines without de-
fense or hesitation."

"How do they obtain these contraband articles ?"

"From secret companies and associations which
trade in foreign countries. They forward to their
accomplices packages hidden in goods which pay duty.
In this manner, last year, so say the statistics, no less
than a million playing cards were smuggled into
France.

"Our country Is fairly inundated with contraband
tobacco and cigars, and the ingenuity of the smug-
glers, who seem to strike a new device each day, has
already succeeded in diminishing the receipts of the
Treasury to a considerable, not to say alarming, ex-
tent.

"The Parisian accomplices of these secret organiza-
tions are known as the Black Band. There are some of
them seated at table clear down the other end of the
room on our right.

"There are usually twenty of them, and they make
so many combinations and so many changes of ap-
pearance that the law finds it impossible as a rule to
put its hand on them.

PAjRIS UNYEILEI).

"Usually well educated and adroit, with no real pro-
fession and belongins; to no recognized social class,
they form, without any formality or actual organiza-
tion, a nameless society which takes all sorts of forms
and embarks in all sorts of enterprises.

"The members, who are united by a common inter-
est, are faithful to each other, and are never under any
circumstances guilty of treachery to one another.

"They cook up letters of credit, negotiate loans at
usurious rates of interest, discount commercial paper
backed by insolent rascals, who get from five to twenty
francs for their signatures. They also make a living
bj' 'bilking' manufacturers who are foolish enough to
let them have goods on credit.

"These free-masonic crooks— for their order is as
well 'tiled' as Masonry itself— get through a vast deal
of work every day.

"Some of them devote themselves exclusively to
blackmail, and many a family has been afflicted with
dishonor, even suicide, at their hands.

"The working classes have a faint idea what they eat.
But they are absolutely ignorant of the nature of the
various fluids which they drink. As a rule, their bev-
erages are nameless poisons fraught with the most dan-
gerous conseqiiences to life and health. There is
nothing of the gi'ape in their wines, and their brandy is
simply a simialative chemical product.

"Thanks to the diffusion of intelligence the working
people understand why official raids are made in their
behalf on the cook-shops, the restaurants, dairies, gro-
ceries, wine shops and confectioners of the metropolis.
They include, in the "Black Band" dishonest butchers
and dealers in unwholesome meats and other viands.
In like manner do they categorize peddlers and haw-
kers who sell their merchandise with false weights and
measures.

"Middle-class people call members of the 'Black

Baud' those tradesmen who corrupt their servants with
commissions and presents."

"Is there no such thing as honesty in trade 1" in-
quired the Prefect.

"Certainly there is. Only an honest tradesman, Uke
a virtuous woman, is never talked about."

"It is a pity," said the Prefect, "that the great dis-
coveries of science, while they have contributed to the
happiness and welfare of man, have also contributed
to his dangers and injuries. Progress in chemistry,
for example, has not merely helped the arts and in-
creased human comfort. It has made the work of the
adulterator of food easy and safe, and, worst of all. ,
profitable. Honest trade has to suffer, and a premium
is put upon commercial rascality and fraud. So far
as I am concerned, I shall leave nothing undone to put
an end to tricks and devices in commerce. Have we
many such establishments as this headquarters of the
•Black Band ?' "

"Too many for the good of Paris. Luckily, however,
none of them are as prosperous and profitable as this.

"The proprietor of a well-known beer shop recently
told a prosecuting officer that no house of the kind
could exist upon the business of strictly honest and
square people. If it were not for 'crooks' and prosti-
tutes he would have to put up his shutters.

"This place, towards 1 o'clock in the morning, under-
goes a very decided change. Crayfish and onion soup
are to be seen on all the various tables which are
crowded by 'lovers' and their girls to whom the Rue
du Faubourg-Montmatre serves as a rallying point.

At this moment a young man stopped the Chief and
handed him a small p.acket, remarking :

"You left this on the counter, sir."

"That was a smart waiter. He made up his mind to
identify me as a 'runner' for smiigglers so he puts
on me this bundle of contraband segars. It compro-
mises me and it reassures the smugglers sitting inside.

CHAPTER XII.

THE "SWELL" SHOPLIFTER AND THREE PRECOCIOUS LITTLE SINNERS.

' Among the professions which anxiously follow the
progress of chemistry, the perfumers are entitled to
a front rank.

"For example, here we are at the window of a per-
fumer who supplies the prettiest actresses in Paris
with their articles of personal luxury.

"A recent official analysis has shown that in place of
containing the extracts of beneficent and wholesome
plants, his little flasks are filled with poisonous and
injurious drugs, which only differ in degree of nox-
iousness.

"Under pompous and large-sounding names, the va-
rious powders with which women whiten their faces,
shoulders and arms, are largely composed of lead.

"Bottles of hair-dye, which are advertised as "war-
ranted harmless" have for their basis sulphate of cop-
per and cyanide of potassium.

"Cosmetics for the face are made into the form of
creams and pomades, and a chemical analysis reveals
the fact that they are largely made up of mercury and
carbonate of lead.

"As to the specifics guaranteed to make the hair grow
on the baldest heads, they are as a rule compounded

of as many and as loathsome ingredients as the hell-
broth mixed by the witches in Blacbeth.

"Speaking of trade, the police of the Tenth Dis-
trict complain that owing to the immense and grow-
ing crowd of street hawkers, accidents are increasing
on the Rues Faubourg St. Denis, Saint Martin and
Temple. All the various faubourgs are invaded at all
seasons of the year bj'" these peripatetic tradespeople
who often take up the middle of the street two rows
deep. This obstructs the movements of vehicles and
makes crossings ver.v dangerous.

"The sidewalks are encumbered and blockaded by
women who sell all sorts of merchandise out of bask-
ets. In fact some of our principal thoroughfares have
degenerated into open air markets and when the day
is over, are strewn ankle deep with the remnants of
fish and vegetables.

"At certain hours- say between 11 and 6, it is almost
impossible to cross these streets.

"The storekeepers naturally complain of this great
nuisance, which caiises them a good deal of injury.
T'hey certainly have abundant reason to complain of
the indifference of the authorities.

HE WAS A MASHER.

AN IMPBISONED CONVICT RELEASED BY A DESPEEATE SWEETHEART.

PABTS UNVEILED.

"In order to keep on good terms witn the members
of the municipal council, the Prefecture of Police
treats their favorites with a good deal of leniency.
This mviltiplies the army of peddlers and hawkers,
and they are not backward in showing their contempt
for the officers, who are hampered by political consid-
erations from interfering with them."

"By the way,can you explain the mysterious fact that
numerotis persons have recently fallen into the Canal
St. Martin ? It is a subject into which I want immedi-
ate iuciuirjr made."

"Well, Monsieur le Prefect, the canal is uncovered,
as you know, from the Temple bridge to the basin of
la Villette. This uncovered portion is protected by
safety-chains. These identical chains are themselves
the cause of the very accidents they are put there to
prevent.

"Instead of being kept tight and breast high, as they
should, in the middle of each there is a sunken curve
which almost reaches the ground. On dark days, in
fog or a snow-storm, the careless passer-by trips his
foot in the curve and falls head over heels into the bed
of the canal.

"The poverty of the lighting of the neighborhood
and the black, suffocating water of the canal, insure
him a speedy and hopeless doom.

"When the body is recovered there are no marks of
violence on it, and the case is unhesitatingly pro-
nounced one of suicide.

"The sum total of human beings who come to their
death in this manner every year is something fright-
ful. The chains have been tip for fifty years, and yet
it has never occurred to the authorities to make them
tight and secure."

"Which are the most turbulent districts of Paris ?"

"The most turbulent and excitable, politically, are
the Twelfth and Nineteenth. The foreign element pre-
dominates in them and they are filled with Germans,
Italians, Belgians and others, who compete with our
native workmen and thereby occasion much ill-feeling
and a good deal of trouble."

"One moment. I see the detective you nickname
Humming-Bird. He and his partner seem to be
watched and followed by somebody. What are they
up to?"

"I will show you. We are now close to the Ambigu
theatre. At No. 4 Boulevard St. Martin is a house hav-
ing an exit on the Kiie de Bondy. We will cross over.
You, Porthos and Humming-Bird go ahead and await
us at the chief police station of the Tenth District.

"You shall see. Monsieur le Prefect, what the spy
is doing and who he is. I think it is ourselves whom
he is shadowing."

The spy turned out to be the proprietor of a house of
ill-fame, who professed to have been employed by one
of the sub-chiefs of police to keep watch of the Prefect.

That functionary addressed his "shadow" in no
measured terms.

"You say you were employed to see that no in-
jury happened to me. You have evidently kept close
to me for I see on your notes a statement of what I had
for dinner. Clear out of this. It is an outrage to use
such a creature as you in any sort of service. The sub-
chief who assigned this fellow to the task of keeping
an eye on me shall receive his dismissal this evening."

"You can hardly blame him, Monsieur le Prefect,"
replied the Chief of Detectives. "You forgot this morn-
ing to inform your personal headquarters staff with
your intentions. So, to show his zeal and concern
for your welware, the sub-chief, according to custom,
selected an agent, not on the force, to follow us from
place to place and keep us under supervision."

The two officers tlien took advantage of being in the
Police Station to glance into the room in which ar-
rested women are detained.

On a bench allotted to the prisoners were seated two
ladies. The one, a handsome blonde of thirty-five,
with features of remarkable delicacy, spoke French
with an excellent accent , and comported herself with
the utmost dignity. She was no less a personage than
Mme. Marie Nasimoff, daughter of Prince Viazimski
and Countess Tolstoi. The lady is therefore a bona
fide Kussian princess. She was divorced from her
husband seven years ago 'by a special nkase of the
Czar. The gentleman had been in the habit of knock-
ing her about, and had actually been condemned at
Nice for his shortcomings toward his spouse to three
months' imprisonment. The Czar's ukase settled the
matter in a way satisfactory to all parties, and thence-
forth Mme. de Nasimoff, free as air, was able to enjoy
life without any apprehension of blows and bruises.
She shone like a star at Nice, delighting her numerous
friends and acquaintances with her concerts and re-
ceptions. Her voice was much admired, and in her in-
tervals of repose from social engagements she climbed
the Mount of Parnassus and contributed the
results of her draughts from the Pierian spring
to the local newspapers. One of her poems was en-
titled "Le Kegard," and treated of the "Timid Virgin"
and of "Chaste Pleasure." Another was headed "Con-
fidenze a Demain," while "Deception" was the title of
a third. Melancholy seems to have tuned Mme. de
Nasimoff's lyre. Besides these inspired works, the
minions of the law had unearthed a whole budget of
correspondence with "crowned heads," which, it is
to be feared, have since been shaking rather omin-
ously.

The other tenant of the prisoners' bench was Mile.
Nadedja de Fomine. She is 36 years old, the daughter
of the late Gen. Demetri, of the Czar's Guards, and to
this day she receives from her imperial Majesty a year-
ly allowance of £120. Moreover, she writes for some of
the Muscovite papers, acts as interpreter occasionally,
and when she got into the scrape which launched her
in the police court was playing the further role of
dame de compagnie to Mme. Marie de Nasimoff. What
had brought these Bussian ladies of high degree to
this unpleasant predicament? A visit to the big
Louvre shops on July 15, the day after the national
fete and the grand review at Longchamps, They had
been watched closely by two inspectors. One of them
stated that the ladies had bought a few things, but had
helped themselves to many more. He warned his
comrade, who arrested the Princess in the Rue de Ri-
voli, while he took her companion in custodj'. When
they were searched a quantity of articles for which
they had not paid were found on their persons. They
formed a miscellaneous collection, including scissors,
cigarette holders, pencils, cigarette papers, cheap
watches and chains, soap, card cases, and toilet
powder.

"You see," said the Chief of Detectives, "that what I
told you of the high social condition of a good many
shoplifters was not by any means a fiction."

As they sallied forth they encountered two commis-
sionaires, who came hurrying for a stretcher in which
to carry to the Lariboisiere Hospital a dry-goods
porter who had sustained a serious, perhaps fatal, fall.

"He slipped upon a piece of orange peel," said a
policeman, "and fell with great violence on the side-
walk. We took him to a drug store on the Bue Chateat
d' Eau, and sent for a surgeon who said it was a bad
fracture of the skull which, considering the man's
age, is sure to prove fatal."

FABIS UNVEILED.

"Street accidents diie to careleesness," said the Chief
of Detectives, "are constantly increasing, and some-
thing ought to be done about it. Butchers and truck-
men, especially, are given to driving at the top of their
speed through the streets. This afternoon a butcher
boy. hurrying from the slaughter-houses of laVillette,
dashed down hill in the faubourg St. Martin, near the
Church of St. Laurent, and ran over and killed a child
eight years old.

"I happened to be passing, and saw the poor little
creature stretched lifeless on the pavement. In his
right hand he clutched some money, and in his left
was a can crushed out of shape. The milk which had
formed the contents of the can was poured all over
the pavement and mingled with the blood which
gushed from his shattered skull."

"Poor little creature. It must have been a horrible
sight."

At this moment the two functionaries encountered a
police officer conveying three little girls to the station
house.

"What is the case ?" inquired the Prefect.

"These are three sisters," replied the officer, "whom
their mother sent out begging on the pretence of sell-
ing flowers. Not wishing to return home, they strag-
gled down to the Valmy quay and were about to jump
in, when an officer, who had been watching them, took
them into custody."

"What will be done with them ?" asked the Prefect,
in a tone of commisseration.

"Their statements will be reduced to writing and
embodied in a complaint against their mother and her
lover, who will be arrested for impelling minor chil-
dren to vice and debauchery. The woman has often
forced the children, with blows, to go out riding in
close carriages with old men."

"What are the ages ot the little ones ?"

"Eight, eleven and thirteen. Their mother is a
Pole, and sells flowers, which her lover steals from the
cemeteries."

"A nice couple 1" cried the astonished and disgusted
Prefect.

CHAPTER XIII.

VICE AND DEBAUCHERY AS THEY PKOSPEK IN THE FEENCH METROPOLIS.

"The Rue Maubree (badly cleaned in old French)
goes back in antiquity to the Xlllth century.

"It is a narrow street, which makes locomotion diffi-
cult and laborious, and it traverses a quarter of Paris
which is composed of old houses tottering to their
fall. These rookeries are inhabited by peddlers and
hawkers, and the hard-working creatures who make
the little French notions which are famous all over the
world.

"A large proportion of the inhabitants of this dis-
trict are honest working people of both sexes. But
they are none the less often afflicted by the contact
of women of ill-fame and their disreputable 'lovers '

"Be good enough. Monsieur le Prefect, to examine
these dark and suspicious alleys and entrys, and their
black walls and their still blacker staircases, on every
landing of whicli is an overflowing leaden tank to hold
the slops of each floor.

"The very air is loaded with pestilence.

"On the ground floor the stores are occupied by
dealers in drinks, cheap restaurants and cook-shops.
Here you will find plenty of places where the broken
victuals given to beggars are bought of them and
cooked over again for sale.

"The entrances are nearly all lit up by lanterns over-
head, which emit a feeble and quivering light. In
every instance each lantern is inscribed "Lodging
House.'

"If you want to see debauchery, vice and honest la-
bor all mingled through their common want and mis-
ery under the same roof, you had better explore this
establishment, whose windows look out on a narrow,
noisome court, which exhales ttie most revolting and
nauseous odors.

"Lodgings here, by the night, cost from 15 to 30 cen-
times {lYi to 15 cents). Such a thing as credit is utterly
unknown. The motto of the place is 'No casb, no
couch.'

"The apartments consist of foul dens hardly large
enough to turn around in, and reeliing with the most

fearful stenches. Each contains for furniture a rough
wide wooden frame, which barely suggests the form
of a bed. This is covered with a straw mattress en-
cased in filthy old rags. Alongside the bed is a wooden
stool, which serves for a washstand and a dressing-
case. A pitcher of water— without any basin— sup-
plies meagre facilities for washing, and a lump of clay
with a hole in the middle of it does duty for a candle-
stick.

"These dens are the lodgings of pimps and thieves
on the first floor, of prostitutes and street walkers on
the second, and elsewhere to the creatures who supply
licensed liouses with their music.

"On the firstfloor some of the apartments are dormi-
tories containing from five to ten long chests filled
with straw which are accepted as the equivalents of
beds. All that one has to do to make them is to turn
them over with a stable fork.

" Here we are in one of these dormitories which is
full for the night. Did you ever look upon a more as-
tonishing, a more repulsive scene ?

" Look around, by favor of the obscure and dingy
lantern 1

" Every one of the lodgers is stripped to his skin, and
the heap of rags which represents the clothes they
have taken off to go to bed, emits a stench to which
nothing could ever do justice.

"Thanks to the fact that the only window in the
place has all its panes broken, the foul air occasion-
ally leaKs out and the fresh occasionally takes its
place.

" Among these fellows you will find waiters out of a
job, ragpickers, streetsweepers, paviors, men who
work two days a week and loaf five, beggars, pimps,
thieves and swindlers. "

"Do the police of ten visit places of this character ?"
inquired the Pi-efect.

"Very seldom. Never, you may say, unless they
have some specific object in view. The last raid
Wiaich took place yeeulted in the capture of three bur-

THEY AKE A HAKD LOT.

PARTS UNVEILED.

glare and two prostitutes wlio were their accomplices
in a big robbery."

"Wiio is that fellow in threadbare clothes whom we
just passed and who nodded to j'on ?"

"That is the drunken lawyer's clerk whom we saw
this evening m the Eed House. When he can't find
quarters here he sleeps in some police station.

"Now let us explore the Rue Fillea-Dieu, which is a
prolongation of the Rue de Venise. It has a history of
its own, and is full of traditions. In some parts it is
so narrow that, by extending both arms, you can feel
the wall on either side.

"Most of the houses are out of plumb, and the stores
on the jiround floor are used by peddlers and hawkers
to keep their push-carts in.

"The rest are inhabited hy prostitutes, who paj' from
three to five francs a day for the use of them.

"AU these women are over forty j^ears of age, and,
without exception, are drunkards of the lowest de-
scription.

"They are closely watched by the police-of-morals,
who regard them as esijecially dangerous to young
shop-girls and apprentices, who swai-m round here
in the Rues Beaubourg, Simon Le Franc and Quincam-
poix.

"Here we are at the entrance of the Rue Filles-Dieu,
for the demolition of which the residents of the Quar-
tier Bonne Nouvelle have been petitioning for over
twentj' years.

"With great justice, they demand that daylight and
fresh air shall be admitted into the hot-bed of moral
and physical infection.

"The decent working population which inhabits the
Cour des Miracle naturally shrinks from exposing its
children to the contamination which thrives in this
street.

"The explanation of the choice of this locality by the
lowest set of street-walkers is lost in the mists of au-
tiquitj^. According to the historians, as far back as the
time of St. Louis there were houses of retreat here for
reijentant Magdalenes.

"The first and oldest of these asylums was that of
the Filles-Dieu (Daughters of God), and, according to
the usage of the day, criminals on their way to the
place of execution at Blontfaucon were obliged to
make a station before the cross of the Filles-Dicn.

"The Sisters gave the poor wretches bread and wine.
and the common people called the repast 'the God-
crust.'

"Time, revolution and progress have all conspired
to make great changes here.

"The convents have disappeared, and in their place
are installed ostentatious resorts of vice and infamy.

"This street, which is longer than the Rues des
Anglais, Manbree and de Venise, is like a huge drain or
sewer. It is very narrow and shut in between houses
Avith cracked and filthy walls, which are alwaj^s sweat-
ing with a hideous and Indescribable moisture. One
would suppose it was always raining here, so incessant

is the emptying of slops out of the iipper windows,
where you constantly see women washing off the straw
mattresses which have been slept upon by drunkards.

"The sun shines only on the roofs of these houses,
and occasionally steals into their garrets. No matter
how hard he may try, he can never reach the damp
and stenchful courts.

"Horrible and hideous as is the exterior of one of
these places, it is nothing compared with the scenes
inside— the crumbling walls, the stinking stairways, the
slipper.y floors, the unmentionable insects.

"This is the home of prostitution in its vilest and
most disreputable form.

"Look round on these hags. See them, in spite of the
police orders, standing in their doorwa.vs soliciting for
patronage with nods and winks and other gestures.

"Utterly lawless aud defiant as they are, they know
who we are the moment thej^ see us. There are three
of us— the regular number of a police round. Besides,
a good mans' of them know me personally.

" Listen to the varioiis cues and signals:

•"OheUgene!' Ohe Zehe!'

" That is a prostitiite warning her 'lover' that there is
danger lurking in the air.

"There goes 'Ugene' running out of that saloon. He
is a pretty sight, isn't he, with his greasy, tattered
trousers, his flat cap and his tawdry embroidered
slijjpers.

"This den which we are about to enter. No. 29, is a
fair sample of the licensed houses of this abominable
street.

" Observe how old and battered it is.

"The ground floor is a sitting-room, or parlor, for
the girls and the landlady. In this cramped and dis-
mal den there are three pine tables covered with cloths
so greasy and filthy that it makes one's stomach rise to
look at them.

One of these tables is placed crossways and faces the
door.

"It serves as a desk or ofiice.

"In one corner is a tottering stove on which the meals
are cooked. The fire is out and on the top of it, on a
piece of greasy paper, are a long sausage, a ha,lf empty
bottle of wine and a dirty tumbler.

"From the low, smoke-grimed roof of this apartment
hangs a kerosene lamp. The light, directed by a paper
shade, falls on a big box. painted red, on which is a
foul straw mattress. An old woman is stretched out
upon it, snoring, with her huge dirty-gray curls and
her toothless mouth wide open, she is hideous to be-
hold.

"The landlady, an enormous woman, is sick in bed.
Her husband mounts guard at the desk and oversees
the business of the den.

"He is a small, insignificant creature, sixty years of
age. Thin and dry as parchment, he presents a comi-
cal appearance as he sits at the receipt of custom in
his shirtsleeves, wearing the regulation silk cap of ■*
rowdy.

PAEIS UNVEILED.

CHAPTER XIV.

PROSTITUTES. -THE EXECUTION OF PEANZTNI.

In front of this horrible and weird-looking old man
is a huge blackboard on -which he keeps, with a piece
of chalk, the accounts of the den. For here nobody
has any credit and every "transaction" between one
of the inmates and a customer is recorded on the
blackboard.

About two o'clock in the morning each girl settles
with the old man and pays over to him that share of
her "earnings" which belong to the house.

This den consists of three floors which are connected
by a bare wooden stair case, filthy and slippery with
all manner of uncleanliness, and which is barely three
feet in width.

There are six rooms, two on every floor. One is re-
served for the special use of the mistress of the house.
The others are at the service of the inmates. Their
furniture is represented by a miserable painted wood-
en bed without pillows, and the sheets of which are
only changed once a month, a miserable little pine
table and a cracked pitcher of water.

"The inmates of the place," remarked the Chief of
Detectives, "are just about what you would expect,
Monsieur le Prefect. They are qaite in keeping with
the furniture and fixtures. They are all played-out,
brandy-sodden, bloated and diseased. The youngest
of the lot is over forty years of age. After having
spent their lives in the grossest debauchery, they con-
sider themselves lucky to be able to finish their miser-
able existences in this manner.

"They enjoy a certain amount of liberty, and for
their meals frequent the neighboring wine shops,
where for a few pennies thej'' get a bit of beef, bread
or cheese. Tliere, too, they find among the drunken
hangers-on customers, whom they entertain for a
trifle."

"What will become of all those prostitutes when
the Rue des Filles Dieu is cleaned out?" inquired the
Prefect.

"The younger ones will rejoin their com-
rades of the Rue de Venice. The others will be
found in hospitals, workhouses and asylums. Evei-y
evening they gather in swarms in a Jittle alley which
opens in the Rues Sainte-Foy and Saint Spire, the pass-
age du Caire and the Rue des Filles Dieu, whence they
issue, at nightfall, like vermin to solicit customers.

"These crowds are always noisj' and vociferous and

_ their disturbances last for hours. Sometimes their

disputes become out-and-out rows and riots in which

the combatants black each other's eyes and pull each

other's hair out in handfulls.

"Nobody separates them and unless the police inter-
fere they close the rows themselves as they begin
them."

The two functionaries dropped into one of the neigh-
boring wine shops.

"What a crowd of women," exclaimed the Prefect.
"Some of them are by no means bad looking. There's
an exception, though, that woman who is eating craw-
fish over there. She has lost her entire nose."

"That is Irma, the Bricktop. Her lover cut her nose
off by striking her in the face with a broken bottle,"

"Look at the boldness of these women— bareheaded

all of them, some with their sleeves rolled up, crowd-
ing round that young man. They grab him by the
arm and he actually has to fight with ferocity to get rid
of them."

"The youngest are the worst. They hunt their male
victims with more pertinacity than the old beldames.
Some of them are not fifteen years of age.

"Every evening, just as to-night, our most attractive
boulevards are overrun by prostitutes and their lovers,
by hawkers of transparent playing cards, pedlers of
questionable drugs and an army of abominable riff-
raff. The women, as well as the men, think nothing
of exchanging the most foul-mouthed language with
people who repel their offers.

"Sprawling on benches j'ou will see thieves, vaga-
bonds and tramps of every variety — creatures without
homes and without occupations— who fill the air with
their indecencies.

"You cannot sit down in a cafe without being pes-
tered by beggars and mendicants of all kinds, sorts,
sizes and ages. Many of tiiem are children— poor little
ragged, bare-footed wretches, who beseech a penny
while sticking under your nose a bundle of pencils or
some other trifle.

"So great is the demoralization of the criminal
classes, that even children are taking to suicide. Only
this evening three young creatures, in their misery
and despair, were about to thi-ow themselves into the
canal when arrested.

"The veiT atmosphere is loaded with moral corrup-
tion and decay."

The Prefect suddenly put his hand on his subordi-
nate's shoulder.

"It is nearly daybreak, " he said, "and at dawn, as
you know, Pranzini pays the penalty of his crime."

"The crowd of debased rufiians which await the
execution," replied the Chief, "will better than any-
thing else illustrate my remarks on the depravity of
modern Paris. Let us go and look at it."

On their way to the gloomy prison in front of which
the notorious criminal was about to expiate his hideous
acts, the Chief said:

"There are people who actually doubt that this
wretch is the onlj' assassin involved in tlie case.

"Their theoiT is that he was onb' an accomplice, the
chief criminal walking about unmolested. M. Fond-
villars. formerly of Lc Temps, made an extraordinary
statement. M. Fondvillars had interviews with Mile.
Sabatier and with Maitre Demange and another well-
known member of the Paris bar. Tiie latter asserts
his conviction that the mysterious dark man seen in
Pranzini's company the day after the crime was the
real author of the murders, and is living in Paris near
Odeon. This man was formerly his client, and is
known to the police as a dissipated character and ad-
venturer.

"On making further inquiries it was ascertained that
the man in question is a little Austrian Jew of a dried-
up, Greek appearance, slight, forbidding, with black
and very arched eyebrows and name not unlike Geiss-
ler. M, Fgnclvillars, in tiie written communication,
said:

FAFilS UNVEILED.

CHAPTER XIV.

PROSTITUTES.-THE EXECUTION OF PBANZINI.

In front of this horrible and weird-lookinK old man
is a huge blackboard on which he keeps, with a piece
of chalk, the accounts of the den. For here nobody
has any credit and every "transaction" between one
of the inmates and a customer is recorded on the
blackboard.

About two o'clock in the morning each girl settles
with the old man and pays over to him that share of
her "earnings" which belong to the house.

This den consists of three floors which are connected
by a bare wooden stair case, filthy and slippery with
all manner of uncleanliness, and which is barely three
feet in width.

There are six rooms, two on every floor. One is re-
served for the special use of the mistress of the house.
The others are at the service of the inmates. Their
furniture is represented by a miserable painted wood-
en bed without pillows, and the sheets of which are
only changed once a month, a miserable little pine
table and a cracked pitcher of water.

"The inmates of the place," remarked the Chief of
Detectives, "are just about what you would expect.
Monsieur le Pi'efect. They are qaite in keeping with
the furniture and fixtures. They are all played-out,
brandy-sodden, bloated and diseased- The youngest
of the lot is over forty years of age. After liaving
spent their lives in the grossest debauchery, thej' con-
sider themselves lucky to be able to finish their miser-
able existences in this manner.

"They enjo.v a certain amount of liberty, and for
their meals frequent the neighboring wine shops,
where for a few pennies thej'- get a bit of beef, bread
or cheese. Tliere, too, they find among the drunken
hangers-on customers, whom thej' entertain for a
trifle."

"What will become of all those prostitutes when
the Eue des Filles Dieu is cleaned out?" inquired the
Prefect.

"The younger ones will rejoin their com-
rades of the Rue de Venice. The others will be
found in hospitals, workhouses and asylums. Evwy
evening they gather in swarms in a little alley which
opens in the Rues Sainte-Foy and Saint Spire, the pass-
age du Caire and the Rue des Filles-Dieu, whence they
issue, at nightfall, like vermin to solicit customers.

"These crowds are always noisy and vociferous and
their disturbances last for hours. Sometimes their
disputes become out-and-out rows and riots in which
the combatants black each other's eyes and pull each
other's hair out in handfulls.

"Nobody separates them and unless the police inter-
fere they close the rows themselves as they begin
them."

The two functionaries dropped into one of the neigh-
boring wine shops.

"What a crowd of women," exclaimed the Prefect.
"Some of them are by no means bad looking. There's
an exception, though, that woman who is eating craw-
fish over there. She has lost her entire nose."

"That is Irma, the Bricktop. Her lover cut her nose
off by striking her in the face with a broken bottle,"

"Look at the boldness of these women— bareheaded

all of them, some with their sleeves rolled up, crowd-
ing round that young man. They grab him by the
arm and he actually has to fight with ferocity to get rid
of them."

"The youngest are the worst. They hunt their male
victims with more pertinacity than the old beldames.
Some of them are not fifteen years of age.

"Every evening, just as to-night, our most attractive
boulevards are overrun by prostitutes and their lovers,
by hawkers of transparent playing cards, pedlers of
questionable drugs and an army of abominable riff-
raff. The women, as well as the men, think nothing
of exchanging the most foul-mouthed language with
people who repel their offers.

"Sprawling on benches you will see thieves, vaga-
bonds and tramps of every variety— creatures without
homes and without occupations— who fill the air with
their indecencies.

"You cannot sit down in a cafe without being pes-
tered by beggars and mendicants of all kinds, sorts,
sizes and ages. Many of them are children— poor little
ragged, bare-footed wretches, who beseech a penny
while sticking under your nose a bundle of pencils or
some other trifle.

"So great is the demoralization of the criminal
classes, tliat even children are taking to suicide. Only
this evening three j'oung creatures, in their misery
and despair, were about to throw themselves into the
canal when arrested.

■'The verj' atmosphere is loaded with moral corrup-
tion and decay."

The Prefect suddenly put his hand on his subordi-
nate's shoulder.

"It is nearly daybreak." he said, "and at dawn, as
you know, Pranzini pays the penalty of his crime."

"The crowd of debased rufiians which await the
execution," rexilied the Chief, "will better than any-
thing else illustrate my remarks on the depravity of
modern Paris. Let us go and look at it."

On their way to the gloomy prison in front of which
the notorious criminal was about to expiate his hideous
acts, the Chief said:

"There are people who actually doubt that this
wretch is the onlj' assassin involved in the case.

"Their theory is that he was onb' an accomplice, the
chief criminal walking about unmolested. M. Fond-
villars, formerly of Le Temps, made an extraoi'dinary
statement. M. Fondvillars had interviews with Mile.
Sabatier and with Maitre Demange and another well-
known member of the Paris bar. The latter asserts
his conviction that the mysterious dark man seen in
Pranzini's companj^ the day after the crime was the
real author of the murders, and is living in Paris near
Odeon. This man was formerly his client, and is
known to the police as a dissipated character and ad-
venturer.

"On making further inquiries it was ascertained that
the man in question is a little Austrian Jew of a dried-
up, Greek appearance, sliglit, forbidding, with black
and very arched ej^ebrows and name not unlike Geiss-
ler. M, FonclviUare, in his written communication,
said:

PARIS UNVEILEi).

•'Proceedings were actually instituted against this
man, but weje stopped suddenly on the intervention of
au influential Creole lady."

When the two oflicials reached the prison the crowd
seething and foaming about the gates of La Roquette
were in such an unsatisfied mood that unless some-
body had been guillotined there would have been
riots. Voices were shouting in chorus:

C'est Pranziui-zini-zini
C'est Pranzini qu'il nous faut.
Oh! oh! oh! oh!

This outlandish chant, echoed and re-echoed by
wine-soaked throats, nightly aroused Pranzini from
his slumbers. His keepers told him that it was
only an emeute, and the wretched man went to sleep
again.

The crowd since midnight had grown and multiplied,
and there were not less than twenty thousand people
gathered about. All the riffraff and scum of Belleville,
all the disreputable women and idlers of the Boulevard
Montmartre, all the morbid foreigners at present so-
iourning in Paris, and all the journalists whom duty
compels to be there, gathered about the approaches to
the grim, frowning prison on this dark and solemn
night in the Place de la Koquete.

The feeble glimmer of a dozen gas lamps shed a dis-
mal light upon the crowd pacing up and down in front
of the prison. The trees which dot the place were
filled with jeering gamins, who defy the injunctions of
the police to "come down out of that." In carriages
there were hundreds of cocottes in gay toilets, drinking
champagne and smoking cigarettes. Here and there a
weary tramp was curled up and asleep against the wall
or on a bench. How anyone can sleep at all in such a
tumult is strange indeed, and yet long habit enables
scores of them to do it. Every now and then a fresh
gang of blackguards arrived swearing, smoking and
shouting, or a carriage drew up, loaded with passen-
gers relatively respectable, and is greeted with the de-
risive chorus of:

Voila Pranzini qui arrive!

To while awas' the time the crowd made occasional
excursions around the corner to a refreshment shed in
the Rue de la Folic Regnault— a predestined name,
surely. When M. Deibler, the executioner, and his
dread assistants were preparing the guillotine during
the evening, long after the regulation police hours, the
wine shops in the neighborhood of the terrible ma-
chine, were crowded with customers. Once or twice
the "executor of lofty deeds," as they call the execu-
tioner here, and his underlings stole in to refresh
themselves with a drop of drink, but very few of the
idlers recognized them, and those who did, of course,
failed to get any informatioo out of them.

New couplets had been added to the lugubrious song
already mentioned:

C'est sa tete, sa tete, sa tete,

C'est sa tete qu'il nous faut!

Oh! oh! oh!

Shortly after midnight the rattle of hoofs and clank-
ing of sabres announced the arrival of mounted gen-
darmes and ^rardes de paix. In a twinkling the place
before the prison was cleared of all but a few journal-
ists and the police agents. The crowd, driven back on
all sides, formed again at either end of the Place,
shouting and singing. Then came a long pause. About
three o'clock the rumble of wheels was heard in the
direction of the Kue de la Folie Regnault.

A few minutes afterward a cart came jolting over the
paving stones toward the entrance to the little avenue
facing the prison gates. There it halted and the exe-
cutioner's assistants jumped off. Then for half an
hour a sound of hammering rose above the songs and
catcalls. "Monsieur de Paris," and his men were pre-
paring the "woods of justice" for the tragic business
before them. As the hammering ceased, a cab drove
up to the Place. The prison chaplain. Abbe Fanrc,
stepped out with the procuveur de la republique. and
hurrying past the guillotine disappeared in the laison
door. The morning opened damp and lowering, Init
it seemed to have little depressing effect ujion the
crowd, which waited until the fatal knife full with a
patience worthy of a better cause.

Pranzini was awakened out of a sound sleep at 4:45
o'clock by the jailers. Father Beanquesne, chapla u
of La Koquette, entered the prisoner's coll and ex-
horted him to be courageous. Pranzini replied th;it he
had no fear, but regretted that the only favor he had
asked— -that of permission to see his mother— had been
refused. He reiterated his profession of innocence,
and refused to make confession to the priest, saying:
"Father, you do your duty; I will do mine." While
being dressed for the block he declared he was glad
that his life was to be taken, as he preferred deatli to
penal servitude for life. He reproached the Chief of
Police for having called, as Pranzini alleged, false wit-
nesses against him during his trial. When he had
been conducted to the scaffold he appeared to be quite
calm and displayed considerable assurance. He kissed
the crucifix presented to him by the priest, but he re-
fused to kiss the priest when the latter proffered the
farewell embrace. Pranzini was at this moment skill-
fully grasped and suddenly thrown upon the guillo-
tine. Its great knife fell and the murderer's head was
severed from his body. The head was at once placed
in a wagon and carried at a gallop to the Ivey ceme-
tery, where it was buried, after the regular funeral
ceremonj' had been performed over it. The Faculty
of Medicine claimed the body and it was surrendered
to them.

'MiHi wi

D

OPi,

LIFE ¥ITH THE CIRCUS.

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